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Military operation in Ukraine

IAEA experts still hear shelling near Zaporozhye NPP — director-general

The head of the agency pointed out that two mine explosions had occurred near the station

VIENNA, April 14. /TASS/. Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still regularly hear shelling near the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Thursday.

"IAEA experts present at the site continue to regularly hear shelling in the area," the document says. "Near the plant itself, two landmine explosions occurred outside its perimeter fence, the first on 8 April, and another four days later."

Besides, according to Grossi, the plant’s dependence on a single still-functioning power line "poses a major risk to nuclear safety and security amid signs of continued military activity."

"At a time of growing speculation about military offensives and counter-offensives in the region, it is more important than ever to agree that a nuclear power plant should never be attacked, nor used to launch attacks from. I will not rest until this has been achieved," he said.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, located in the town of Energodar, has six reactors with a combined capacity of about 6,000 MW, making it the largest in Europe. It used to generate a quarter of all electric power in Ukraine. In March 2022, the Zaporozhye facility was placed under the Russian army’s control.

Since then, the Ukrainian military has been periodically bombarding both Energodar’s residential quarters and the premises of the Zaporozhye nuke plant, employing drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.

Most of those attacks were repelled by air defense systems, but, in several incidents, Ukrainian munitions hit the plant’s infrastructure and the nuclear waste storage area.

Grossi visited the Zaporozhye NPP on March 29. He inspected the plant facilities that had been damaged in Ukrainian shelling attacks. In particular, he could see the site between the coolant reservoirs at the fourth power unit that had been hit by a Ukrainian rocket. It was Grossi’s second visit to the nuclear power plant in the past six months (his first visit took place on September 1, 2022).

On April 5, the head of the IAEA visited Kaliningrad and discussed the security issues of the Zaporozhye NPP there with high-ranking representatives of several Russian agencies.

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Ukraine Military operation in Ukraine

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