IAEA to form working group to coordinate assistance for staff at Ukrainian NPPs - Grossi

KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The International Atomic Energy Agency will establish a working group to coordinate assistance for Ukraine, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

"The IAEA to set up a working group to coordinate assistance and support staff who are working hard to keep Ukrainian nuclear sites safe and secure," Grossi said on Twitter on Tuesday during a visit to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

According to video footage of Grossi's remarks to the press posted on Twitter, the IAEA mission that has arrived at the Chernobyl NPP intends to conduct its planned work in close cooperation with Ukrainian specialists and authorities.

"I'm here with some colleagues, nuclear safety experts from the IAEA, who have been working with the Ukrainian safety experts. We are going to compare our figures. We are going to be doing some monitoring in the area, not only here, but in the Exclusion Zone as well. We are coordinating of course with the Ukrainian authorities," Grossi said.

A great deal of work will have to be done in the Exclusion Zone, including repairs to connect the agency's monitoring system, he said.

It is not only a symbolic visit, but it is a working visit, during which a large amount of necessary nuclear safety equipment has been delivered to Ukraine, he said.

"The assistance is going to continue," Grossi said.