VIENNA, February 10. /TASS/. The situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant remains instable because of ongoing combat operations in the exact proximity in the plant, then International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a press statement posted on its website on Friday.
"The situation around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant remains volatile and unpredictable, as it is an active combat zone. The postponement of the planned rotation demonstrates all too clearly the need for urgent measures to protect the plant and the people working there," the IAEA quoted its Director General Rafael Grossi as saying.
An IAEA mission, led by its Director General Rafael Grossi, visited the Zaporozhye NPP, which was being shelled by Ukrainian troops, in early September 2022. Several agency employees remained at the nuclear plant as observers after the mission departed. In its report issued after the visit, the IAEA called for the immediate establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporozhye plant to prevent a possible "nuclear incident" triggered by hostilities. The IAEA chief is negotiating the project with the Russian and Ukrainian sides.
Grossi held talks with Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev in Moscow on February 9 to discuss the establishment of a security zone around the ZNPP. After the talks, Likhachev pledged that Russia would act absolutely transparently for the IAEA in what concerns its actions at the Zaporozhye NPP and expressed the hope for the soonest beginning of practical implementation of the security zone idea.