The IAEA announced staff reductions at the Zaporozhye NPP

Zaporozhye NPP will reduce the number of personnel at the station due to the intensification of military operations in the region. About it reported at the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“The IAEA team has been informed that ZNPP has decided to temporarily reduce the number of personnel at the site to a minimum level over the next few days due to concerns about the higher risk of military action in the area,” the statement said.

The IAEA noted that the organization’s experts who are at the Zaporizhia NPP have heard numerous explosions over the past week. According to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, this could be a sign of increased military activity in the region, which poses a potential threat to nuclear security. It is clarified that the station itself was not damaged.

The Zaporizhzhya NPP told a group of IAEA experts that on September 7, drones carried out new strikes on Energodar, where plant employees live with their families. There were no reports of deaths as a result of the incident.

August 31 Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reportedthat Ukraine staged a provocation during the rotation of IAEA mission observers. Along their route, ammunition explosions were simulated. The ministry said that for the safety of experts, a ceasefire was declared within a radius of 1 km from the destroyed bridge near the city of Vasilyevka – the observers’ crossing point. The Ministry of Defense emphasized that the Russian military, despite the provocation, strictly observed this regime.

Zaporozhye NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russia has controlled the plant since the end of February 2022. The Zaporizhia NPP and the town of Energodar, in which it is located, are regularly subject to shelling from Ukraine. IAEA experts have been present at Zaporizhzhya NPP since September 1, 2022, following the first visit of the agency’s Director General Rafael Grossi to the plant.