IAEA to Inspect Ukrainian Nuclear Facilities

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has made announcement regarding the inspection of 2 Ukrainian nuclear facilities to investigate any signs of “undeclared nuclear activities.

In this regard, Director-General IAEA, Rafael Grossi has revealed that the inspection has been in process and one of the two sites were inspected last month. He didn’t disclose the location of these two nuclear facilities which IAEA is inspecting.

It’s notice worthy that this IAEA announcement came after the Russian accusations that Kyiv is preparing to use dirty bombs.

A dirty bomb is a nuclear device / bomb which contain partially enriched Uranium or other radioactive isotopes to be scattered in air after a conventional detonation which may or may not some wireless mechanism. Due to this, they are cheaper to make and move around.

It has been confirmed that both these nuclear facilities in Ukraine are under IAEA regulations which means that the IAEA’s inspectors already visit both sites regularly.

The invitation appeared to be in response to Russia’s recent allegations that two institutes in Ukraine were involved in preparations to produce a dirty bomb. Moscow has not offered any evidence for the claim.

Russia’s state-run news agency, RIA Novosti, said it had identified two sites – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv – as the locations central to the alleged Ukrainian operation.

Moscow has raised the reservations through a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by the Russian representative to the council, Vassily Nebenzia stating that the country [Russia] would “regard the use of the dirty bomb by the Kyiv regime as an act of nuclear terrorism”. It’s not clear how Moscow reached this conclusion.

Obviously, Moscow’s allegations were rejected outrightly by Ukraine and all of her European allies and the US. The US, UK and French foreign ministers have already termed Russian accusation as “transparently false”. Ukraine and her allies feel that Russia can use this claim to use her own nuclear weapons against Ukrainian forces as conventionally Russian forces’ performance in Ukraine has been very disappointing for Moscow. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have made considerable gains in Kherson region that was once under strong Russian control. In their joint statement, US, UK and France have said the “world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian allegations were clear signs that it was planning it own attack.

Western intelligence officials have been keen to stress that there is no indication that Russia is preparing to use so-called dirty bombs or other nuclear devices.

Kherson is an important territory for Russia as Moscow have declared this along with other 3 Ukrainian regions as part of Russia. But Kiev reacted with strong actions and have pushed Russian forces back. In recent days, Moscow-installed officials have fled the city and urged civilians to evacuate over the Dnieper river into Russian controlled territory.