G7 supports IAEA’s efforts to ensure safety at Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant — statement
"We continue to call on Russia to withdraw its military and civilian personnel from the ZNPP and from all of Ukraine, to return full control of the plant to the competent Ukrainian authorities, and to refrain from taking any actions that could result in a nuclear incident at the plant," the group added
KARUIZAWA /Japan/, April 17. /TASS/. The Group of Seven (G7) nations support the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) efforts to ensure security at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the G7 Non-Proliferation Directors Group said in a statement on Monday.
"We reaffirm the importance of the IAEA director general's ‘Seven Indispensable Pillars of Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Security’ as derived from IAEA nuclear safety standards and nuclear security guidance, and underline the importance of ensuring the safety and security of nuclear facilities in the armed conflicts including that of all Ukrainian nuclear facilities. In this regard, we support the IAEA's efforts under the leadership of Director General Rafael Grossi to strengthen nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, including the establishment of the continuous presence of IAEA experts at all of the country's nuclear power sites, and the efforts to ensure nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP in a manner that respects Ukrainian sovereignty," the statement reads.
"We continue to call on Russia to withdraw its military and civilian personnel from the ZNPP and from all of Ukraine, to return full control of the plant to the competent Ukrainian authorities, and to refrain from taking any actions that could result in a nuclear incident at the plant," the group added.
The six-reactor 6-gigawatt Zaporozhye NPP, located in Energodar, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russian forces took control of the facility in late February 2022. Since then, the Ukrainian army has been shelling both the residential areas of Energodar and the power plant’s premises using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. In most cases, the air defenses deflected the attacks, but on several occasions shells hit infrastructure and the nuclear waste storage area. Grossi visited the Zaporozhye NPP on March 29. He inspected the plant facilities that had been damaged in Ukrainian shelling attacks. In particular, he was able to see the site between the coolant reservoirs at the fourth power unit that had been hit by a Ukrainian rocket. On April 5, the IAEA chief made a trip to the Russian city of Kaliningrad to discuss the facility’s security with Russian officials.