MELITOPOL, January 13. /TASS/. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) decision to send experts to Ukrainian nuclear power plants is too late, since there are ground to think that materials for "dirty bombs" have already been taken away from them, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told TASS on Friday.
"Ukraine’s potential makes it possible today not only to make a ‘dirty bomb,’ but also to make an A-bomb, although primitive and inferior to present-day standards. They can do it. Logic suggests that the IAEA is concerned with this problem, but I doubt it. If such fissile materials (radioactive materials - TASS) were taken from these plants, it has already happened," he said, commenting on the IAEA’s decision to send its observers to Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
"It least it is a delayed reaction. It should have been done earlier - to establish control. Now, I think it is too late," he said.
According to Karchaa, the agency’s decision is believed to stem from the threats allegedly coming from Russia. Such allegations, in his words, are politically motivated and are "not very honest." "The IAEA is used as an organization for various types of political manipulations. I am convinced that it is being done by our ‘well-wishers’ in the person of the United States and the United Kingdom. And quite probably, France," he added.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said earlier on Friday that he plans to visit Ukraine next week and the agency plans to have 11-12 experts at nuclear facilities in Ukraine at any given time.
The IAEA said on November 14, 2022 that at the request of the Ukrainian government the agency would sent expert missions to Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. The IAEA mission finished its work at the Chernobyl NPP on November 25. IAEA experts inspected the South Ukraine NPP on December 2, and the Khmelnitsky and Rovno NPPs on December 10.