Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant – Nuclear Safety at Risk: IAEA Experts on the Move

“I am proud to lead this mission, which will be at the nuclear power plant later this week,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi tweeted Monday morning with a photo of the 14-man team. The day had come, the support and relief mission to Zaporizhzhya was on its way.

“We must protect the security of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe,” he said. A trip by IAEA experts has been under discussion for months but has so far failed due to a lack of security guarantees and disputes over the modalities of the visit.

Reactors were shut down in an emergency
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant with six reactors in southern Ukraine has been occupied by Russian troops since March. The site of the power plant is repeatedly shelled, for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. The international community fears a possible nuclear accident. Two reactors went into emergency shutdown last week because the power supply was interrupted.

IAEA experts want to investigate damage and security systems themselves on site, because the information from Kiev and Moscow is often contradictory. The situation at the nuclear power plant had deteriorated sharply recently. Several artillery shells reportedly fell in the town of Enerhodar, where workers at the power plant live on Sunday night. As in previous days, the Russian and Ukrainian sides blamed each other for the shelling.

A few hours earlier, Russian forces are said to have shot down an armed Ukrainian drone directly over one of the six reactors. Russia complained that Ukraine wanted to use such measures to prevent a visit by IAEA experts to the nuclear power plant. The escaped Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlow, spoke of a provocation: Russian troops had fired. He accused Moscow of “nuclear blackmail” because Russian troops were holed up in the nuclear power plant.