The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Raphael Grossi, will visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian occupation, for the second time. He will be accompanied by a group of organization experts.
This was reported by the IAEA press service on March 25.
Grossi will visit the ZNPP next week "to personally assess the seriousness of the nuclear safety situation at the facility and emphasize the urgent need to protect it during the military conflict in Ukraine."
"I’ve decided to travel again to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to see for myself how the situation has evolved since September and to talk to those operating the facility in these unprecedented and very difficult circumstances. I remain determined to continue doing everything in my power to help reduce the risk of a nuclear accident during the tragic war in Ukraine," he said.
According to him, although IAEA representatives have been at the station for seven months, the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP remains unstable.
"Nuclear safety threats and risks are all too obvious, as is the need to act now to prevent an accident with potential radiological consequences for human health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond. Thatʼs why I continue to work on a proposal to protect the station" said the general director of the organization.
- The ZNPP was occupied by the Russian military at the beginning of March 2022 and has been operating under their control since then. Since August, the occupiers have been regularly shelling the ZNPP and Energodar, as a result of which the station was completely disconnected from the power grid several times.
- In September, a 14-person IAEA delegation visited the station, after which agency employees remained at the ZNPP. They change periodically.
- Ukraine insists on the withdrawal of the Russian occupiers from the station. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that while Russian soldiers are at the ZNPP, "the world remains on the brink of a radiation disaster."