UN nuclear watchdog chief pushes back on Moscow’s calls for objectivity after Kursk plant visit

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has pushed back against Moscow’s calls for further objectivity, following an inspection at the nuclear facility in the embattled Russian region of Kursk.

Last week, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting a drone strike at the Kursk nuclear plant during a lightning cross-border incursion that has been under way since early August and which Moscow is still trying to repel.

CNBC could not independently verify the incident and has reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“What we need to do is to objectively, not to stoke any hysteria or anything like that, but to indicate when a danger exists. And here it does. It objectively [exists],” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.

“The spokesperson of the Russian ministry of foreign affairs rightly says, be objective. Yes, we are being objective. We are saying here that this nuclear power plant … is within range of a potential artillery strike, which means that the danger exists. Is this danger inherent to the technology? Absolutely not,” he said, adding that these facilities hold “strategic value” in military conflicts because they serve national energy infrastructure.

“They are, I wouldn’t say pawns, but they are factors in a wider confrontation,” he noted.

His comments come after Russia on Wednesday urged more objectivity from the IAEA in the performance of its duties.

“We see both the assessments and the work of this structure [the IAEA], but each time we want a more objective and clear expression of this structure’s position, not in favor of our country, not in favor of confirming Moscow’s position, but in favor of facts with one specific goal: ensuring security and preventing the development of a scenario along a catastrophic path, to which the Kiev regime is pushing everyone,” Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian foreign ministry, said Wednesday on Sputnik radio, according to a Google-translated report from Russian state-owned news outlet Ria Novosti.

Grossi on Thursday acknowledged that parties at war are likely to retain a “strategic ambiguity that surrounds any military operation,” translating into less disclosure over their activities.   

“I also understand these attempts to drag me, or us, the agency, into their own preferred narrative that we need to avoid,” he said.

Grossi led a delegation to inspect the Kursk facility on Wednesday, telling reporters in a subsequent briefing 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 artillery impact or drone[s] or missiles.”

On Thursday, Grossi explained that the Kursk nuclear plant contains reactors of the Soviet RBMK-type, similar to the ones present in the Chernobyl facility, which suffered one of the worst nuclear disasters in history in 1986.

This make of reactors lacks a reinforced roof, meaning that “if there was an attack, or, wittingly or unwittingly, or as a result of any exchange, there could be a possibility of an impact on nuclear material. And therefore release of radioactivity into the atmosphere,” Grossi said.

Recounting his on-site findings, he described the Kursk facility as still operating in “relatively normal conditions,” but noted “indications around the perimeter of the plant of impacts of projectiles, shrapnel markings, so on, which indicate or could indicate the existence of these kinetic events in the past.”

The risk of nuclear detonation as a result of nearby military activity has been a chief concern since the February 2022 start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s subsequent occupation of the Ukrainian plant in Zaporizhzhia — the largest nuclear power facility in Europe

Nuclear concerns have only mounted since this month’s start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive on the territory of Russia, which is the fifth-largest owner of nuclear reactors globally, according to the World Economic Forum.

Clashes between Moscow and Kyiv intensified at the start of the week, with Russia launching a massive barrage of 236 drones and missiles on what the Ukrainian air force described as “critical Ukrainian infrastructure.”

Referencing the offensive, the permanent mission of Ukraine to the IAEA reported in a note that “due to fluctuations in the national power grid caused by Russia’s attack, at 17:10 (EEST}, power unit 3 of the South Ukraine NPP was disconnected from the grid.”

“The Russian Federation continues to deliberately target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, intending to disrupt the operation of the country’s nuclear power plants, which provide most of Ukraine’s electricity. Russian attacks pose a significant risk to the stable operation of nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the safety of millions of people,” the mission said.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.