Drone strikes cooling tower at Kursk nuclear power plant
IAEA said the plant was operating during the early-Thursday strike; there was no fire and the reactor’s status remained unchanged.
A drone struck the cooling tower of one reactor unit at the Kursk nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in a post on X. The agency said the facility was operating at the time of the early-Thursday attack, but there was no fire and the plant’s operational status remained unchanged.
IAEA assessment and immediate impact
According to the IAEA, the strike damaged the external structure of the cooling tower but did not trigger any blaze or affect the reactor’s core systems. The agency did not report injuries or radiation releases linked to the incident.
In its post on X the agency underlined that the plant continued to function after the hit and that operators had not reported changes to critical safety parameters.
“All attacks on nuclear facilities are unacceptable because they can endanger nuclear safety, regardless of where they occur,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
The IAEA statement provides the primary international confirmation of the event; it emphasized the risks posed by any strike on nuclear infrastructure and called for protection of such sites.
Local and international authorities are expected to monitor the plant closely in the coming hours and days to verify that its operational status remains stable and that no latent damage has compromised safety systems.
Photo: Rosatom)
