VIENNA, June 3. /TASS/. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) cannot be restarted amid combat operations and without a prior safety assessment, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said.

"In terms of what need to happen [to restart the ZNPP], there shouldn’t be any bombing or any activity of this type, there should be a more stable assurance of external power supply. This requires repairs, important repairs on the existing lines, which at the moment and because of the military activity are very difficult to envisage. And this also would require a number of safety assessments," he told a news conference on the occasion of a IAEA Board of Governors meeting.

According to the IAEA chief, the agency conveyed this position to the Russian management "in case they would accept to participate in this assessment." "This conversation is still pretty preliminary," he said. "We got confirmation that there is no intention to decommission [the plant]. On the contrary, Russia has been investing in the plant, have been reinforcing some safety and nuclear security aspects of the plant."

He stressed that both Russia and the agency share the opinion that at this point the "restart, gradual or simultaneous, of more than one unit would not be advisable.".