Grossi: Safety concerns led to Zaporizhzhia route change for IAEA experts
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi says that the decision for the rotation of agency experts at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to take place via Russia, rather than via Ukraine as usual, was because "I could not take risks with the lives of my experts, and any other political consideration was out of place".
Grossi, speaking at a press conference as the IAEA Board of Governors met in Vienna, was asked whether he was concerned about appearing to legitimise the situation at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian military control since March 2022. The agency has had a team of experts at the plant since September 2022, with a staff rotation every month or so, travelling from Ukraine and crossing the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces, a few kilometres from the plant.
However the team who left the power plant at the weekend had been there for weeks longer than planned after their previous rotations were cancelled by security risks. Ukraine has opposed the idea of the IAEA staff making their way to the plant via Russia and Russian-controlled territory.
Grossi said: "This was solely driven by the necessity to protect the lives of those who are working there. It is, of course, a difficult situation and this is an exception and the only thing behind this is the protection of the lives of the experts. There is nothing more. Reading more into that is not a good idea."
He recalled that in 2022 there had been suggestions that the IAEA would be legitimising the situation by engaging with safety and security issues at the occupied nuclear power plant, but "I think that we have proven together, Ukraine and the agency, that was not the case. On the contrary I think the continued presence of the agency's experts, not only in Zaporizhzhia" but, at the Ukrainian president's request, at all nuclear power plants in the country "and cooperation on a number of areas has proven to be invaluable for nuclear safety, security" and also on reconstruction with work on a new nuclear programme.
In his opening statement to the board of governors he said that since their last meeting in November, "the agency has arranged 31 deliveries of nuclear safety, security and medical equipment and supplies to Ukraine, bringing the total so far to 108 deliveries valued at more than EUR15.6 million (USD16.4 million). The agency also has initiated the first phase of its support on safety and security of radioactive sources in Ukraine".
The background
During the war, which has now lasted more than three years, the IAEA has had teams of experts at all of Ukraine's nuclear power plants as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has all its units in cold shutdown. The agency has produced regular updates on the safety and security situation at all of the plants, and seeks to ensure that core safety and security principles are adhered to - such as not firing at, or from, a nuclear power plant, or using it as a military base.
The IAEA has not attributed blame to either side during the war, with Director General Grossi explaining in a press conference at the United Nations in April last year that this was particularly the case with drones, saying "we are not commentators. We are not political speculators or analysts, we are an international agency of inspectors. And in order to say something like that, we must have proof, indisputable evidence, that an attack, or remnants of ammunition or any other weapon, is coming from a certain place. And in this case it is simply impossible".
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