“We are not going anywhere” is the message coming from UN nuclear safety watchdog IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, about the agency’s commitment to continued monitoring of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants during Russia’s ongoing invasion.
KRC TIMES Desk
Addressing the opening of the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna on Monday, Mr. Grossi said that 53 missions mobilizing more than 100 agency staff have been deployed as part of a continued presence inside Ukraine’s five nuclear power plants.
These include the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, or ZNPP, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, where Mr. Grossi said that the situation remained “very fragile”.
‘Courageous service’ by IAEA staff
The ZNPP is controlled by Russian forces but operated by its Ukrainian staff. It is Europe’s largest nuclear plant and the IAEA has been monitoring the situation there since the early days of the conflict.
In a message read out at the opening of the General Conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that he applauded the “courageous service” of IAEA personnel stationed at the plant. He pledged that the UN will continue to do “all it can” to ensure the safe rotation of experts operating across Ukraine’s five nuclear facilities.
