ENERGODAR, March 29. /TASS/: Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi arrived at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on Wedenesday, a TASS correspondent reported.
This is Grossi’s second visit to the plant located in the city of Energodar in the Zaporozhye Region.
The IAEA delegation consists of 11 people, including Grossi himself and three inspectors who have come on rotation. They are accompanied by seven people: representatives of the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS).
Earlier, Renat Karchaa, adviser to the chief executive of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power plant operator, told TASS that three experts from Slovakia, France and Japan would stay at the plant for about two months.
Grossi announced his plans to visit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on March 25. Later, Karchaa told TASS that the visit would take place on March 29, coinciding with a regular rotation of IAEA experts which last time was delayed by nearly a month through the fault of the UN Department of Safety and Security. Grossi himself said that he was planning to personally inspect how the situation had changed since his last visit to the nuclear facility in September 2022. Prior to his current visit to the nuclear power station, Grossi visited the Dnieper hydropower plant on March 27, where he met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On March 22, Grossi said that the creation of a demilitarized zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was no longer being considered and the focus should be on ceasing hostilities in the vicinity of the facility.
The 6-gigawatt Zaporozhye NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, is located in Energodar. At the end of February last year, the facility was put under control by Russian forces. Since then, the Ukrainian army has periodically shelled both the residential areas of Energodar and the territory of the nuclear plant, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. In most cases the attacks are repelled by air defense systems, however, several times shells hit infrastructure facilities and nuclear waste storage. To protect the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from shelling, engineers created something like a protective dome.
At the moment, two power units of the plant are in the state of hot shutdown and supply heat to Energodar, two more are in cold shutdown. The other units are under repair. The only line that supplies electricity to the plant from Ukraine operates.
