(Vienna) The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, will be in Kyiv on Tuesday before going to the Ukrainian power plant of Zaporijjia, weakened after the destruction of a dam on the Dnieper river .
“On the way to Ukraine to meet the president” Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted Mr. Grossi on Monday, in a message accompanied by photos showing him with his team ready to leave Vienna, headquarters of the UN body.
After Kyiv, the head of the IAEA will take over the management of the ZNPP plant occupied by the Russians “to assess the situation and organize a new rotation of experts”, whose number will be increased.
Since the start of the invasion, he has constantly warned of the risk of a nuclear accident at this site in south-eastern Ukraine, where he has already visited twice and deployed agents Permanently.
The Zaporijjia power plant, the largest in Europe, is at the heart of the conflict: it fell into the hands of the Russian army on March 4, 2022, it was targeted by gunfire and was cut off from the electricity network on several occasions.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which caused a sharp drop in the level of the reservoir used to cool the six reactors, degrades “a little more an already difficult and unpredictable situation”, lamented Rafael Grossi last week.
Faced with divergent data, he reiterated on Sunday his request for access to the place where the water level is measured in order to carry out an “independent” examination.
The plant can also rely on a large retention basin and other sufficient reserves “for several months”, according to the IAEA.
Even if the reactors have been shut down for months, the fuel in the unit cores as well as that placed in the storage pools must be constantly cooled “in order to avoid a potential meltdown accident and radioactive releases into the environment “.