The plant has been occupied by Russian forces since March 4.
The United Nations' atomic watchdog has called for the creation of a demilitarized zone around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, warning that shelling near the facility could cause the"unlimited release" of radioactive materials into the environment.
The IAEA said it wants to consult with both Russia and Ukraine"immediately" about the steps needed to establish the security zone. During the Security Council briefing, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said the first step would be for both sides to cease all military operations around the plant.
This is because nuclear reactors run extremely hot — with some parts reaching up to 3,272 degrees Fahrenheit — and if coolant doesn't constantly circulate around them, the fuel inside can easily melt. This transforms nuclear fuel and its cladding into a radioactive magma-like lump, which sinks through the reactor and then the building, melting everything in its path.
Nonetheless, a direct shell hit to the outside of a reactor could be dangerous, Robin Grimes, a professor of materials physics at Imperial College London, said in a statement. Be it from a shell outside or a meltdown inside, a puncture to the Zaporizhzhia reactors' twin shells wouldn't lead to an explosion like the one at Chernobyl, but it would still release a lot of dangerous material.
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