IAEA: Safety at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating / Nicolas Cleuet / ZUMAPRESS.com
November 14 Russia’s foreign ministry has warned it may expel International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors from the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant if it deems their work to be “improper”.
The statement came a day after the agency’s director, Rafael Grossi, told German news agency DPA that IAEA monitors would remain at the Zaporizhia power plant until the war was “frozen.”
“We will be there until the conflict moves to a new phase, at least less fighting and maybe a ceasefire – no, a frozen conflict, whatever phase we move to, but without this threat,” M. Grossi said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a counter-statement warning that IAEA experts can visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant “only with the consent of the Government of the Russian Federation.”
The ministry said nuclear monitors could stay “only as long as our country considers their presence there justified.”
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, from 2022. March is occupied by Russia. From 2022 in September IAEA monitoring groups work at the power station on a rotating basis. Russian authorities are still denying inspectors full access to the plant.
Source: www.15min.lt
