DNIPRO, UKRAINE (AFP) – The head of the UN Nuclear Regulatory Agency returned Wednesday to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, after months of negotiations to ensure the safety of the plant itself. said to be shortened. Surrounding area.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi rushes to reach agreement with Russian and Ukrainian authorities to secure plant hit several times during Ukraine war No hits have been reported. The plant has also repeatedly suffered losses of offsite power needed to cool his six reactors while it is out of service. Grossi has once again crossed the front lines of the war, arriving at a factory in the partly Russian-occupied part of Ukraine where fighting is raging.
The IAEA, based in Vienna, Austria, has been changing its inspection team for the facility for several months. In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Grossi said it was his duty to step up negotiations between Kiev and Moscow to protect the facility and avoid a catastrophic accident.
Grossi said he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday and would “probably” go to Moscow in the next few days.
However, Zelenskyy said in a separate interview with his AP that he is not optimistic that a deal is near. “I don’t feel it today,” he said.
Grossi has long pushed for a protected area around the plant, but so far there is little hope of an agreement. Ukraine insists all Russian troops must evacuate the facility. Grossi told reporters at the factory on Wednesday that he was working on “realistic measures” and narrowed the scope in hopes of reaching agreement on a mutually acceptable plan.
“Initially, we focused on the possibility of establishing well-defined zones around the factory,” Grossi said at a press conference. “Now the concept is developing. It also raises certain problems. The focus is less on territorial aspects and more on conservation itself and what to avoid, such as protecting plants.”
He didn’t say what problems larger protected areas would entail, but said:
“There are no strongholds here. His main goal, he said, is to reach agreement on principles and a “promise not to attack the facility.”
After a full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, Kremlin forces took over the factory. Zelensky rejects any proposal to justify Russian rule.
Grossi told the Associated Press that the negotiations were aimed specifically at preventing nuclear disasters at nuclear power plants, not reaching a broader ceasefire.
Interruptions to offsite power due to combat forced plant personnel to switch to a backup diesel generator six times during his 13 months of war. According to Grossi, it’s impossible to predict when emergency power will be needed again.
