6 Jun 2022 17:01

IAEA planning to send experts to Zaporizhzhya NPP - director general

BERLIN. June 6 (Interfax) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is working on sending a group of international experts to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday.

"We are developing the modalities to dispatch such a mission," Grossi said in a statement he made at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, as published by the IAEA.

An IAEA-led international mission should be dispatched to the Zaporizhzhya NPP "to carry out essential nuclear safety, security and safeguards work at the site," he said.

"I have repeatedly expressed my grave concern at the extremely stressful and challenging working conditions under which Ukrainian management and staff are operating the plant," he said.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov had said at the end of May that the IAEA leadership was in touch with both Russia and Ukraine on a possible visit to the Zaporizhzhya NPP, which is currently under control of Russian forces.

Peskov acknowledged that the organization of such a trip involved some issues. "Naturally, the organization of such a trip requires settling a whole set of logistical and technical issues, such as from what direction to enter it, from which territory, through what checkpoints, on what transport, and so on. None of these details have yet been agreed upon," Peskov said.