UN inspectors to stay in Ukraine nuclear plant to ensure safety
UN inspectors spent a second day on Friday at a Russian-held nuclear plant and at least two will remain on a permanent basis to ensure safety after the United Nations atomic agency said the site had been “violated” by the fighting in Ukraine.
A 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Thursday as global concern grew over its safety in a war raging ever-closer to its six reactors.
Russian troops seized control of the site, Europe’s biggest atomic facility, in early March.
“It is obvious that the plant and physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi said on Thursday as he and part of his team returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory after a productive first visit lasting around three hours.
The Argentinian said some of his inspectors would stay at the plant “until Sunday or Monday” to “dig deeper” into some of the observations the team had made to draw up a report.
“We have achieved something very important today, and the important thing is the IAEA is staying here.”
Russia’s envoy to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov said six IAEA inspectors had stayed behind and that two more would remain there “on a permanent basis”.
“Six (IAEA) employees will stay at the plant, for a few more days and then they will return to Vienna,” he said.
“Two people will stay at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on a permanent basis.
“We welcome this because an international presence can dispel the many rumours about the state of affairs at the nuclear power plant.”
The Kremlin described the inspectors’ arrival at the plant as “very positive”.
“In general, we are very positive about the fact that, despite all the difficulties and problems, the commission arrived and started to work,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
A shelling attack on the area at dawn on Thursday had forced one of the plant’s six reactors to close in what Ukraine’s Energoatom nuclear agency said was “the second time in 10 days” that Russian shelling had forced the closure of a reactor.
It said the plant’s emergency protection system kicked in, shutting reactor five, with the attack damaging a back-up power supply.
The shelling left only one of the six reactors working.
Red Cross chief Robert Mardini had on Thursday warned the consequences of hitting the plant could be “catastrophic” saying “the slightest miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades.”
“It is high time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures to protect this facility, from any military operations,” he said.