Russia will take full control of Zaporizhzhya NPP under Rosatom, claims IAEA director

Amid growing Russian aggression, Ukraine recently informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Russia plans to take full and permanent control of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant under Rosatom management. In a letter to IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, the president of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, stated that around 400 Russian soldiers were present “full time on-site”. He confirmed that the NPP remains under the control of the Russian military forces’ commander. 

In his letter to Grossi, Kotin confirmed that the staff at the NPP were regularly rotating. He said that Russian experts had arrived at the site a few days ago to assess the radiation situation there. It is to mention here that previously, Ukraine informed that UN atomic agency that Russian military forces took over the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors, on March 4. 

"Its regular staff have continued to operate the NPP and carry out their day-to-day work, but its management is under the control of the commander of the Russian forces there, Ukraine said. Russian forces took control of another nuclear site in Ukraine, the Chornobyl NPP, on February 24," the statement read. 

Repairing work begins at Chernobyl NPP

Meanwhile, Russia has confirmed that a limited number of the company’s experts were present at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. In a phone call with Grossi, the Director-General of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, confirmed the above, however, he denied that Rosatom had taken operational control nor that it intended for the plant to be under Rosatom’s “management system”. 

On the other hand, Ukrainian authorities told IAEA that technicians have started repairing damaged power lines in an attempt to restore electricity supplies to the site of the Chernobyl NPP that were entirely cut a few days ago. According to reports, Ukraine informed that the repairing work began on the evening of March 10 and that they had also repaired one section but off-site electrical power was still down, indicating there was still damage in other places. Kyiv has stated that the repair efforts would continue despite the difficult situation outside the NPP site. 

(Image: AP)