Zaporozhye NPP’s management interested in cooperation with IAEA, director says
"We communicate with IAEA representatives twice a day, we hold meetings every morning and evening," Yury Chernichuk said
MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant’s management is interested in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) employees, the plant’s Director Yury Chernichuk told the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Monday.
"Two days ago, another rotation took place and two representatives of the agency arrived here," he noted. "I initially said that the plant is fully open to provide the international community with all the information about the situation at the facility, we are the ones who are the most interested in this," Chernichuk said.
"We communicate with [IAEA] representatives twice a day, we hold meetings every morning and evening, where we discuss all issues and I provide them with information," the nuclear power plant’s director added.
On December 2, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that an agreement on creating a safety zone around the Zaporozhye NPP could be reached in the near future. CEO of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Alexey Likhachev said earlier that the safety model that was being discussed with Grossi required an end to any shelling of the power plant. On November 17, the IAEA adopted a resolution calling on Russia to immediately abandon what it called "baseless" claims of Moscow’s ownership of the power plant. The Russian mission to Vienna slammed the resolution as going beyond the agency’s mandate.
The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, located in the city of Energodar, is the largest in Europe and has a capacity of about 6,000 MW. Russian troops took control of the facility in late February. Since then, the Ukrainian military has been shelling both Energodar’s residential areas and the premises of the Zaporozhye nuclear plant, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers.