The experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have arrived in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. The Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Enerhoatom published a video of the team’s arrival after a nearly nine-hour drive from Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon.
It was initially unclear when the 14-strong mission headed by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi would continue to the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Enerhodar.
The city of Zaporizhia, capital of the region of the same name, is under Ukrainian control. The nuclear power plant – 50 kilometers as the crow flies but around 120 kilometers by car from the capital – is on Russian-occupied territory. At the checkpoint, about 40 kilometers by road from Zaporizhia, there are kilometers of traffic jams in both directions. The Russian occupation authorities had announced that the IAEA mission would not receive any special permits.
The IAEA experts want to get an idea of the situation in the power plant and talk to the remaining Ukrainian employees. Increasing artillery shelling of buildings on the power plant site has raised international concerns about a nuclear catastrophe. Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of shelling.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was occupied by Russian troops shortly after the start of the Russian invasion at the end of February. With its six blocks and a net output of 5700 megawatts, it is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Before the war it had more than 10,000 employees.
