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Military operation in Ukraine

IAEA experts postpone scheduled Zaporozhye NPP walkdown amid drone threat

The team was told to shelter indoors on 20 August and had to reschedule their planned walkdown on 26 August

VIENNA, August 30. /TASS/. Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deployed to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) had to postpone their scheduled walkdown of the facility earlier this week due to the threat of a drone attack, the global organization said in a statement.

"At the ZNPP, the IAEA team stationed at the site has continued to hear explosions and other indications of military activities, at times near the plant itself. Due to reported drone threats in the area, the team was told to shelter indoors on 20 August and had to reschedule their planned walkdown on 26 August," the IAEA said.

On August 11, Ukrainian drones delivered two direct strikes on one of the two cooling towers at the Zaporozhye NPP, which resulted in a fire. The main fire was extinguished by Emergencies Ministry units by 11:30 p.m. that same day. Director of the plant Yury Chernichuk said earlier that plastic separation devices were the main fire source, adding that the drone with incendiary agent entered the cooling tower from the top and detonated there.

The fire did not affect the NPP’s operation, as the plant is shut down, and the attacked towers were not involved in the cooling process. The IAEA team have examined the site of the drone strike twice since then.

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