Recommendations for the Chernobyl trip of the Head of the United Nations Nuclear Monitoring Agency for the negotiations on nuclear safety
Ukraine war: IAEA head says both sides are looking at the possibility. (File)
Tablets:
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog proposed Friday to Chernobyl to negotiate with Ukraine and Russia and ensure the security of Ukraine’s nuclear sites.
The offer comes hours after Russian aggression forces took control of Europe’s largest power plant at Zaporizhzhia after a battle with the Ukrainian army sparked fires and fears of an accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters: “I have let both the Russian Federation and Ukraine know that I am ready … to go to Chernobyl as soon as possible.”
“Both sides are looking at” the possibility, he added.
On February 24, Russia seized the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination westward across Europe.
Grossi said the trip would be aimed at discussing with both sides a “framework” to protect the security and operation of Ukraine’s nuclear sites.
The IAEA is ready to “move, do something about what’s going on, and not simply tweet,” he said.
Grossi said the attacked building in Zaporizhzhia was not part of the plant’s reactors but an adjoining training facility at the site.
He added that two security personnel were injured.
“There was no release of radioactive material,” Grossi said, adding that the site’s radiation measurement systems “are fully operational”.
However, he quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that “the situation naturally continues to be extremely tense and challenging”.
Of the six reactors at the site, only one is operating at about 60 percent capacity, Grossi said.
One of the reactors has been under maintenance, the next two are in a “safely controlled shutdown” and the last two are “reserved and operating in low power mode”. Grossi explained.
Grossi said that any trip to Ukraine would take place after he returned from Tehran on Saturday.
There, he will hold talks with senior Iranian officials on lingering IAEA questions about past nuclear activity at undeclared sites in Iran.
Ukraine has four operating nuclear power plants, which provide about half of the country’s electricity, as well as nuclear waste storage facilities such as the one at Chernobyl.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
