IAEA Director-General Grossi to visit Zaporozhye NPP on Wednesday

VIENNA, 29 March – RIA Novosti. Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will visit the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) on Wednesday.

Earlier, the IAEA reported that Grossi will go to ZNPP this week. Vladimir Rogov, head of the movement “We are with Russia”, member of the main administrative council of the Zaporozhye region, told RIA Novosti that the visit of the Director General of the Agency to the ZNPP will take place on March 29.

Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper, near the town of Energodar. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and installed capacity – the power plant has six power units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. It has been under the protection of the Russian army since March. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that this step is justified in order to prevent the leakage of nuclear and radioactive materials. The Ukrainian army continues to regularly bomb Enerhodar and the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant adjacent to the city. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Kiev regime was trying to create the appearance of a nuclear catastrophe threat by continuing to deliberately bomb the ZNPP. The IAEA has repeatedly expressed the need to create a security zone around the ZNPP.

This will be Grossi’s second visit to the NGS and his first since establishing a permanent presence of IAEA experts at the ZNPP on 1 September last year.

As the IAEA explained, Grossi will go to the ZNPP “to personally assess the serious situation regarding nuclear security at the facility and to highlight the urgent need to protect the facility during the ongoing military conflict in the country.”

The CEO himself noted that he plans to assess the situation and talk to those who operate the plant in difficult conditions.

According to him, despite the fact that IAEA experts have been in the field for seven months, the situation in the ZNPP is “still unstable.” In this context, it is necessary to “act now to prevent an accident with potential radiological consequences for the health and environment of people in Ukraine and beyond,” according to Grossi. He also noted that he continues to work on a proposal to preserve the facility.

As Renat Karchaa, Advisor to the General Manager of Rosenergoatom Concern, said earlier on TV channel Rossiya 24, the situation in Russia’s ZNPP is open to discussion with the Director-General of the IAEA during his upcoming visit to the station.