IAEA mission at Chornobyl NPP completed

BRUSSELS. June 3 (Interfax) - Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have completed a three-day mission to test nuclear safety at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP), the IAEA website stated on Friday.

"During their three-day stay at the Chornobyl NPP and the Exclusion Zone set up after the 1986 accident, IAEA experts provided support to their Ukrainian counterparts on radiation protection, safety of waste management and nuclear security," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi was quoted on the website as saying.

IAEA experts will continue visiting Ukraine in coming weeks and months, Grossi said.

He pledged further such missions to the Zaporizhia NPP, which is in a now Russian-controlled area, to ensure nuclear safety. In April Grossi said he was in talks with the authorities in Ukraine and Russia to gain access to the plant.

Grossi himself led two such missions: to the Chornobyl NPP in late April and to the South Ukraine NPP in March. At the time, he noted that having IAEA specialists personally present onsite would help avert a nuclear disaster with serious consequences for public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond.