The head of the IAEA plans new visits to Russia and Ukraine because of the shelling of the ZNPP

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi plans to visit Ukraine and Russia again to ensure the safety of the Zaporozhye NPP. About this head of the agency informed French TV channel BFMTV.

He discussed the need to protect the station with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Grossi said that the IAEA specialists plan to assess the damage after the attacks on the morning of November 21. “My inspectors will conduct a round of the station tomorrow morning if the situation permits,” he said (quote according to TASS). Grossi noted that the agency’s specialists could not do this on November 20 due to the fact that it was “too dangerous” because “they were still shooting.”

“We are currently assessing the damage. The station was affected, but the reactors were not damaged,” Grossi added and suggested that the shelling affected parts of the station where spent and new nuclear fuel is stored.

On the evening of November 19, adviser to the general director of the Rosenergoatom concern, Renat Karchaa, on the air of Rossiya 24, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) had fired at the perimeter of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. “In the period from 17:15 to 17:41, 12 strikes were made on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. We are talking about the perimeter of the station itself, and not about the industrial zone. Six arrivals were in the spray pool – this is the cooling system. Two arrivals were in the square of the dry storage of nuclear waste. And there were three more arrivals in the area of ​​checkpoint-2,” said Karchaa (quote according to RIA Novosti). On the afternoon of November 20, he informed TASS that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the Zaporozhye NPP, about 15 arrivals were recorded, including in the special building No. 2, where fresh nuclear fuel is stored. In addition, there are hits in the area of ​​the dry storage site for spent nuclear fuel (ISSF). Karchaa added that now reinforcing structures are being erected at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, the concrete wall was cut with fragments.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, posted a video of the shelling on his Telegram channel. He wrote that the nuclear threat does not come from Russia, but from the “criminal Kyiv regime.”

This week, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution calling on Russia to abandon its “unfounded claims” to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and withdraw its military and civilian personnel from the plant, handing over control over it to the Ukrainian side. In addition, the resolution states that the checks carried out by the organization did not reveal any traces of the development by Ukraine of the so-called. “dirty bomb”, and the corresponding Russian claims are called unfounded. The Russian permanent mission to international organizations in Vienna called this resolution “another step towards the politicization of the work of the IAEA.”