The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday after a visit to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine that the situation there was “serious”, but in the process of stabilization, after the destruction of a dam. “We can observe on the one hand that the situation is serious, the consequences are there and they are real,” Rafael Grossi told reporters. “At the same time, steps are being taken to stabilize the situation,” he added.
Rafael Grossi’s visit to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, aimed in particular to determine whether this installation was endangered by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River, whose water was used to cool the six reactors. Rafael Grossi claimed that the plant had “enough water”. On Tuesday, the head of the IAEA had already estimated that there was no “immediate danger” for the plant, occupied by Russian forces since 2022.
“I was able to see the cooling pond […] the irrigation gates, the channels that constitute the essential cooling system” of the plant, he said Thursday. “It was very important that I could have my own assessment of the situation with my experts,” said Rafael Grossi, who was making his third visit to the Zaporizhia plant since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.
The Zaporizhia power plant has been repeatedly targeted by bombings blamed on Moscow and kyiv and has been cut off from the electricity grid on several occasions, raising concerns about its safety. The IAEA has a permanent team of experts on site.