For weeks, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been pushing for permission to travel to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine – now a team of nuclear experts is actually on the road. Meanwhile, Russian reports of a drone attack on a reactor are causing concern.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is on its way to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This was confirmed by the head of the authority, Rafael Grossi, on Twitter. “We must protect the safety of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe,” Grossi wrote. He is proud that he will personally lead the mission. He expects to arrive in Zaporizhia later this week.
Meanwhile, the situation at the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant continued to deteriorate during the night. Several artillery shells reportedly fell in the town of Enerhodar, where the power plant employees live, on Sunday evening. As in the previous days, the Russian and Ukrainian sides blamed each other for the shelling. Videos from both sides show that numerous cars were burning in residential areas.
As a further step in the escalation at the nuclear power plant, the Russian occupation administration reported an alleged Ukrainian attack with a drone. The aircraft was shot down and fell on the containment shell over a reactor. The explosive charge detonated without causing any damage. This information has not been independently verified. It was assumed that the drone was intended to hit a spent fuel storage facility.
Nine people were injured in the night shelling of the city of Enerhodar – two of them seriously, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the occupation administration. The escaped Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlow, spoke of a provocation: Russian troops had fired. He accused Moscow of “nuclear blackmail” because Russian troops are still entrenched in the nuclear power plant.
The Russian accusation is that Ukraine wants to prevent the visit of the IAEA experts by any means necessary. In fact, the necessary safety guarantees for the journey have always been missing. The international community fears a possible nuclear accident caused by the fighting at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Two reactors went into emergency shutdown last week because the power supply was intermittent.
