The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed on August 22, 2024 by Russia that the remains of a drone had been found within the Kursk nuclear power plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine of trying to strike the Kursk nuclear power plant in an overnight attack. The nuclear plant is located in western Russia, where fighting is raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces, is especially vulnerable to a serious accident because it lacks a protective dome that could shield it from missiles, drones or artillery, the head of IAEA said on August 27, 2024.

The nuclear plant– the same model as the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine that witnessed the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986 – lacks the containment dome and protective structure that is typical of modern nuclear power stations. According to Grossi, director-general of the IAEA: “This means that the core of the reactor containing nuclear material is protected just by a normal roof. This makes it extremely exposed and fragile, for example, to an artillery impact or a drone or a missile,” So this is why we believe that a nuclear power plant of this type, so close to a point of contact or a military front, is an extremely serious fact that we take very seriously.”

Excerpt from UN watchdog says Russian nuclear plant ‘extremely exposed’ if attacked, Reuters, Aug. 27, 2024