A new team of nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived at Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant on Oct. 4, the twelfth rotation since the agency established a permanent presence at the site in September 2022.
Teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been working with Russian and Ukrainian officials, as well as receiving support from the National Nuclear Security Administration in hopes of preventing nearby combat operations from causing a nuclear accident.
“Once again, our experts have crossed the frontline to help ensure nuclear safety and security at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant which is caught up in the middle of the war,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Oct. 4. “We should all be grateful for their determination to do everything they can to achieve this important task. Their presence is necessary to monitor the situation at the site and to provide impartial and timely information to the international community.”
IAEA teams recently received armored vehicles from Japan that will be used in routine plant inspections and to ferry agency personnel across the frontlines, which separate Ukrainian-held territory from the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest. With funding from Germany, the IAEA has hired drivers and security personnel for these rotations, the agency said.
“These vehicles and dedicated personnel are essential for ensuring the safety of IAEA staff during rotations to and from the plant,” Grossi said. “They will also allow us to conduct our missions with full logistical independence.”
The new IAEA team continues to gain access to all six turbine halls on the same day so they can be inspected one by one, to confirm the absence of any materials or military equipment that could threaten the plant or its nuclear reactors.
“This request has not yet been approved and the team can only confirm the status of one turbine hall at a time,” the IAEA said.
IAEA inspectors also have so far been denied access to the rooftops of four of the plant’s six reactors, but expect approval from occupying Russian forces this week, the agency said.
“We will insist until we get the access we need in order to monitor compliance with the five concrete principles for the protection of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant,” Grossi said.
IAEA teams at Ukraine’s three other nuclear plants and the Chernobyl site still report safe and secure operations of these nuclear facilities despite ongoing combat between Ukraine and invading Russian forces.
