Establishment of safety zone around Zaporozhye NPP 'completely realistic' - IAEA head Grossi

BRUSSELS. Nov 16 (Interfax) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday he viewed the IAEA's proposals on setting up a safety zone around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) as completely realistic.

"I think it is completely realistic. We have proposed something which is very feasible," Grossi said when asked by a journalist whether it would be realistic to set up a safety area around the Zaporozhye NPP.

The IAEA did not propose Ukraine and Russia an option of setting up a safety zone involving other organizations apart from the agency, including United Nations peacekeeping forces, as it understood that such options would be "politically very, very difficult" to implement, he said.

"We adjusted it, narrowed it down to purely nuclear safety/security-based considerations with the IAEA as the interlocutor. That was, I believe, a reasonable way forward since Ukraine and also the Russian Federation said that they were prepared to work on the basis of this. They were not saying, 'forget about this, this is something that we cannot even contemplate'. No one has said that, which gives me hope," Grossi said.

The Zaporozhye NPP site has been controlled by Russian forces since February 28.

The Zaporozhye NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of its capacity. It is located in Energodar.