Vienna:
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog on Friday offered to travel to Chernobyl to negotiate with Ukraine and Russia and ensure the security of Ukraine’s nuclear sites.
The offer came hours after Russian invasion forces took control of Europe’s largest power plant in Zaporizhzhya following a battle with Ukrainian troops that sparked fire and fears of an accident.
“I have indicated to both the Russian Federation and Ukraine that I am available … to travel to Chernobyl as soon as possible,” Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters.
“Both sides are considering” the possibility, he added.
On February 24, Russia seized the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination across western Europe.
Grossi said the trip is intended to discuss with both sides a “framework” to ensure the safety and functioning of Ukraine’s nuclear sites.
The IAEA was ready “to get moving, do something about what’s going on, not just tweet,” he said.
Grossi said the building in Zaporizhzhya was not part of the plant’s reactors, but an adjacent training facility at the site.
Two security personnel had been injured, he added.
“No radioactive material was released,” Grossi said, adding that the site’s radiation-measuring systems are “fully functional.”
However, he quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that “of course the situation remains extremely tense and challenging”.
Of the six reactors at the site, only one is operating at about 60 percent capacity, Grossi said.
One of the reactors was already undergoing maintenance, two more were in “safety-controlled shutdown” and the last two “were already kept in reserve and operating in a low-energy mode,” explains Grossi.
Grossi said any trip to Ukraine would take place after his return from Tehran on Saturday.
There, he will hold talks with senior Iranian officials about outstanding questions the IAEA has about past nuclear activities at undeclared sites in Iran.
Ukraine has four active nuclear power plants, which supply about half of the country’s electricity, as well as nuclear waste storage sites, such as the one at Chernobyl.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)