The planned visit of the head of the UN atomic agency, Rafael Grossi, to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, controlled by Russia, has been delayed “by a few hours”, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to an official of the Ukrainian government without specifying when it would arrive at the plant in the southeast of the country. “He is waiting to travel safely,” he pointed out.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had to go to the plant to check if the level of water in the reservoir that cools its reactors is sufficient, despite the fact that it has dropped considerably after the destruction of the Kajovka dam, located 70 kilometers up the Dnieper River from the city of Kherson, last week. Russia’s state-run RIA news agency said the visit had been delayed until Thursday.
The plant has been in the crossfire repeatedly since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility soon after, as well as the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. In the last few hours, both sides have reported carrying out attacks in the Zaporizhia region.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Grossi said he was “very concerned” that the plant could once again get caught up in open warfare. “There is active combat. So we are concerned that there may be… I mean, obviously mathematically, the chances of a coup,” he stated.
Grossi planned to spend several hours inspecting the site as well as carry out a relief of IAEA inspectors already at the plant. The plant is controlled by Russia, but has kept its Ukrainian staff. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant uses a cooling pond to prevent potentially disastrous overheating of its six reactors. Grossi considered yesterday that there was no immediate danger, but that it was a “serious situation”. And that his visit to the plant, the largest in Europe, would allow him to assess the risk more precisely.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of sabotaging the dam, which has caused catastrophic flooding in the Kherson region, both in the Ukrainian-controlled and Russian-controlled areas. Western countries say they are still gathering evidence, but believe Ukraine would have had no reason to inflict such a disaster on itself. It is believed that Russia was seeking to hinder the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Kakhovka dam, a few kilometers west of the plant, was normally used to refill the pond, but now it cannot do so due to the drop in its water level, the Ukrainian nuclear authorities have declared. Instead, the pond, which is separate from the reservoir, can be refilled using deep underground wells, they said. A senior Russian official installed in the area by Russia also pointed to the wells as a measure to alleviate the effects of a drop in the level of the deposit, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
The pond is currently full, its level standing Tuesday morning at 16.67 meters of water, “enough to meet the needs of the station,” said Energoatom, the Ukrainian operator of the plant. Grossi has said in recent days that there is enough water in the pond for “several months”, but on Tuesday he painted a more pessimistic picture, telling reporters that “there could be water for a few weeks or maybe a month or two”. .
