A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are on their way to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine and will be there “later this week,” IAEA Chief Rafael Mariano Grossi tweeted Monday.
“The day has come, @IAEAorg’s Support and Assistance Mission to #Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) is now on its way. We must protect the safety and security of #Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility. Proud to lead this mission which will be in #ZNPP later this week,” Grossi tweeted.
Nuclear fears: The mission — which will assess damage to the plant’s facilities, evaluate the working conditions of the staff, and perform urgent safeguard activities — comes amid renewed shelling at the facility and mounting fears over a potential nuclear accident.
Shelling occurred in the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar near the plant on Sunday night, with Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the attacks. The IAEA said in a statement Sunday that shelling in recent days hit a “special building” located just 100 meters from from the plant’s reactor buildings.
Who is traveling? When CNN reached out to the IAEA on Sunday about the makeup of the expert mission, the nuclear watchdog declined to comment, saying it would not make such information public and that “all IAEA missions have members from different Member States, selected on the basis of their relevant expertise. They are international civil servants representing the IAEA, not their countries.”
