IAEA mission heading to Zaporozhye nuclear plant, says Russian envoy
Baku, August 29, AZERTAC
A mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency is currently on its way to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP), Mikhail Ulyanov, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, said on Monday, according to TASS.
"The long-awaited IAEA mission led by Director General Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi is now on its way to the Zaporozhye NPP," he wrote on Twitter.
Grossi said earlier that the IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye plant had been formed and would arrive there this week. The inspectors would assess the physical damage to the plant and check the facility's security and safety systems. The experts led by Grossi will also have to evaluate staff conditions at the plant and take urgent measures to ensure safety there.
The Zaporozhye NPP, located in Energodar, is under the control of Russian troops. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian forces have recently carried out several strikes on the territory of the plant, using, among others, drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers. In most cases, the attacks were repelled by air defense systems, but shells have been recorded hitting infrastructure and the area within the vicinity of the nuclear waste storage facility, thereby posing a threat of radiation leakage.
The IAEA earlier stated the necessity to send an urgent mission to the ZNPP due to the safety risks at the nuclear facility. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the August 28 program of the Rossiya 1 TV channel ‘Sunday Evening with Vladimir Soloviev’ that it was Moscow who had been insisting on such a visit and "had been doing everything possible for it to take place."
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