MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/. Rosatom will do everything necessary to commission the first unit of the Kursk NPP-2 in 2024, CEO of the state corporation Alexey Likhachev told journalists.
"We are building new units next to [Kursk NPP] and we will do everything to launch the first unit of Kursk NPP-2 this year, but that is in the future. In the meantime, we are working with what we have," he said.
On August 27, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi arrived in the city of Kurchatov to inspect the Kursk NPP. Earlier, he described the situation around the Kursk NPP as causing serious concerns due to risks of damage from Ukraine’s attacks. He announced his plans to visit the facility to assess the situation and then go to Kiev. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Kiev’s attempted kamikaze drone attack on the Kursk NPP as an act of nuclear terrorism and called for the IAEA’s reaction.
The IAEA has been shown the results of the Ukrainian military’s attacks on the Kursk nuclear power plant and there can be no ambiguity as to who carried out these strikes, Likhachev noted. :The results of concrete attacks have been presented, and there can be no ambiguity as to who carried out these strikes, where they came from, in this case," he said.
At the same time, Likhachev noted that the IAEA shares Russia’s concerns about threats to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and the future of the entire nuclear sector. According to Likhachev, the agency has done much to recognize nuclear energy as green and enhance the sector’s authority. "I think that the IAEA has finally shared our worries, our acute concern that an attack on the Kursk NPP may mean a blow on the planet’s entire nuclear industry and would do irreparable damage to the development of nuclear power generation in the world," he said after a delegation from the IAEA visited the Kursk NPP.