IAEA chief discusses Ukraine, Russia nuclear plants with Zelensky, says situation fragile

KYIV - UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi, who is due to visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-east Ukraine on Sept 4, said the situation there was “very fragile” and the risk of a disaster remained.

Mr Grossi was speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on Sept 3 after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian nuclear and energy officials. They also discussed the state of affairs at the Kursk nuclear plant in Russia, which Ukrainian troops are close to.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, fell to Russian troops soon after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and is not operating now.

Both sides have frequently accused each other of shelling it. Moscow and Kyiv both deny the accusations.

Mr Grossi, who is director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said: “I have very often characterised (Zaporizhzhia) as very fragile. Some days, we have some stability, and then there is an end, an issue, a drone impact, or like today we had one of the two existing power lines down, which means that the station is again on the verge of being on a blackout.”

“Blackout - no power. No power - no cooling. No cooling - maybe you have a disaster,” he said.

Russian news agencies reported on Sept 2 that a high-voltage power supply line at the plant had automatically disconnected.

Ukraine said Russian attacks had damaged one of the two external overhead lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid. Russia has not commented on that charge.

Mr Zelensky, visiting the city of Zaporizhzhia with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Sept 2, said that at this stage of the war, it was not possible for Ukraine to take back control of the plant.

Mr Grossi, who

visited Russia’s Kursk plant

last week, also said at the Sept 3 briefing that the situations there and at Zaporizhzhia were different.

But he added: “I think it is always a risk when there is a possibility of an attack on a nuclear power plant.”

Russia says the Kursk plant has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40km away since they carved out a slice of Russian territory in a cross-border incursion launched on Aug 6.

Mr Grossi said, after visiting the Kursk plant, that it was extremely fragile because it had no protective dome and that the “danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here”.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Aug 29 denounced what it said were Russian efforts to accuse Ukraine of provocations that threatened nuclear safety, saying this was a “disinformation campaign to distract attention from its own criminal acts at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant”. REUTERS