ENERGODAR /Zaporozhye Region/, June 15. /TASS/. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi is likely to visit the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) on Thursday, June 15, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told TASS on Thursday.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said on Wednesday that the IAEA chief’s visit had been postponed to give more time to the Ukrainian side to prepare the safe rotation of the IAEA experts at the facility.

"It can be said with a high degree of probability that the IAEA delegation led by Grossi will finally visit the facility on Thursday," Karchaa said.

IAEA mission at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant ZNPP will be expanded twofold, to four people, Renat Karchaa said.

He said however that he sees no sense in the expansion of the IAEA mission. "I don’t see any connection between the number of inspectors and nuclear safety," he said.

According to Karchaa, the IAEA chief will be fully informed about the condition of the plant’s infrastructure following the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant. He stressed that there is no deficit of water at the ZNPP.

Grossi visited Kiev on June 13. He told journalists that after the news conference he would go to the ZNPP where he planned to spend several hours to see the situation with his own eyes.

Located in the city of Energodar, Europe’s largest Zaporozhye NPP has six power units with an aggregate capacity of 6 GW. Russian forces took control of the facility in February 2022. Since then, Ukrainian troops have been periodically shelled both Energodar’s residential quarters and the plant’s territory. According to the Russian defense ministry, Ukrainian troops delivered several strikes on the plant’s territory in recent days with the use of drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. Most of such attacks were repelled by air defense systems but several shells hit infrastructure facilities and near the nuclear waste storage area.

"Now, there are two experts and there will be four," he said when asked how many IAEA inspectors will stay at the facility.