IAEA team heads to Ukraine’s nuclear plant
A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is on its way to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
The IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, said the IAEA team would arrive later this week.
“We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Grossi said in a post on Twitter.
The IAEA tweeted separately that the mission would assess physical damage, evaluate the conditions in which staff is working at the plant, and “determine the functionality of safety & security systems”.
It added that it would also “perform urgent safeguards activities”, a reference to keeping track of nuclear material.
The United Nations and Ukraine have called for a withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the nuclear power plant to ensure it is not a target.
Accusations
Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of shelling in the plant’s vicinity as fears of a radiation disaster increase.
The Chief of staff to Ukraine’s president, Andriy Yermak, said late on Sunday that Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the nuclear plant is located.
“They provoke and try to blackmail the world,” Yermak said.
Russia’s defense ministry reported more Ukrainian shelling at the plant over the weekend.
“At present, the full-time technical personnel are monitoring the technical condition of the nuclear plant and ensuring its operation.
The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal,” Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
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Reports say two of the plant’s reactors were cut off from the electrical grid last week due to shelling.
The U.S. State Department said on Sunday that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the plant and had blocked a draft agreement on nuclear non-proliferation because it mentioned such risk.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which was captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, has been a hotspot in a conflict that has settled into a war of attrition fought mainly in Ukraine’s east and south six months after Russia launched its invasion.
Zainab Sa’id
