Pn 29 March, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station currently occupied by Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine as part of efforts to avert the risk of an atomic accident, Reuters reports.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived by car at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there, an IAEA spokesperson said. A Reuters reporter at the Russian-occupied plant reportedly saw a motorcade transporting the IAEA expert mission arriving at the facility, escorted by the Russian military.
The Zaporizhzhia NPP is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Russian troops captured it in early March 2022. In October 2022, Russian President Putin decreed the Russian takeover of the nuclear station. In February 2023, Ukraine sanctioned the Russian nuclear energy sector, including the organizations that Russian nuclear operator Rosatom established for the illegal control over Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Grossi told Reuters in Dnipro City on 28 March that the situation at the plant remained “very dangerous” and “very unstable,” noting that military activity in the region had increased in recent weeks.
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