The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Argentine Rafael Mariano Grossi, will travel next week to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, occupied by Russian forces, “to assess first-hand the serious security situation.” the UN agency reported today.
It will be the second time the diplomat has crossed the front line to reach Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and the first since he established a permanent presence of experts from the agency in early September last year.
“I have decided to travel to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant again to see for myself how the situation has evolved since September and to speak with those who operate the facility in these unprecedented and very difficult circumstances,” Grossi said in a statement.
“I remain determined to continue to do everything in my power to help reduce the risk of a nuclear accident during the tragic war in Ukraine,” he declared.
“Despite our presence on site for seven months, the situation at the plant remains precarious. The dangers to nuclear safety are all too obvious, as is the need to act now to prevent an accident with possible radiological consequences for the health and environment of the people of Ukraine and other countries,” he said.
The Zaporizhia plant, the largest in Europe, is located near the city of Energodar, has six pressurized water reactors of the VVER-1000 model and has a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
For months, Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of bombing the facilities of this plant, located in an area controlled since March 2022 by Kremlin troops.
At the beginning of last October, several days after Russia announced the incorporation of the Zaporizhia province by virtue of a referendum in which the “yes” to the union won by an overwhelming majority, its president, Vladimir Putin, decreed the transfer of the central to the federal patrimony.
The IAEA, based in Vienna, the capital of Austria, began sending missions to the nuclear power plant in September 2022 and since then has rotated its staff several times, most recently in January.
Source: Ambito
