IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi crosses the front line to visit the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Report: How the IAEA is helping to ensure nuclear safety at Ukrainian nuclear power plants Peace and Security
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi visits the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant today amid escalating attacks on Ukraine. This is Grossi’s fifth visit to the plant since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country. The IAEA also released a report today on its efforts to ensure nuclear safety in Ukraine.
Prevent an Accident
The 28-page report highlights the challenges the IAEA faced in its efforts to prevent an accident at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, as well as the Agency’s achievements along the way. Recall that IAEA expert teams are constantly present at all Ukrainian NPPs, regularly reporting on all incidents, including shelling and drone strikes at ZNPP.
An Unstable Situation
The situation at Zaporizhzhya NPP remains fragile, Director General Grossi said in the foreword to the report. “Two years after the IAEA began working at the occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, our determination to help prevent a nuclear accident remains unwavering,” he said. – In the face of significant challenges and risks to nuclear and physical safety, we are relentless in our mission to assess the situation and inform the international community.”
Drone Strikes and Other Incidents
Since the beginning of the year, ZNPP has been repeatedly hit by drone strikes, was without power, and in August a fire caused significant damage to one of the two cooling towers (a water cooling facility).
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Director General Grossi noted that the objective and impartial assessments of the situation provided by the IAEA experts made a significant contribution to maintaining nuclear safety and security and helped to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
Mission to other nuclear sites
IAEA missions are also permanently present at four other nuclear sites in Ukraine – the Khmelnytsky, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants, as well as at the Chernobyl site.
“Our activities at these sites remain essential, and I am immensely proud of the courage with which our teams carry out their work,” Grossi said.
In total, over the past two and a half years, the IAEA has carried out 139 support and assistance missions to nuclear facilities in Ukraine. In addition, thanks to the comprehensive assistance of the IAEA, 61 consignments of equipment worth more than 10 million euros were delivered to this country.
The IAEA will continue to provide assistance
The IAEA also continued its vital work to ensure the non-use of nuclear materials for military purposes. “On my fifth visit to ZNPP and my tenth visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, I want to assure the international community that the IAEA and I, as the Director General, will continue to do everything possible within our mandate to help prevent a nuclear or radiological accident at any of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities,” the Agency’s Director General emphasized.