<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656103886494,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000165-15c6-d22c-a1ef-97efc26a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656103886494,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000165-15c6-d22c-a1ef-97efc26a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56101670", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1038131"} }); ","_id":"00000181-977b-ddcb-a3e1-df7bcdc40001","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedRussia’s seizure of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant has jeopardized the ability of international watchdogs to conduct security inspections.
“This week, I dispatched safeguards inspectors to Ukraine to conduct essential verification activities at the South Ukraine NPP,” said Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Friday. “Unless I am able to do the same for the Zaporizhzhya NPP as soon as possible, the implementation of safeguards in Ukraine will be compromised.”
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhya plant in the early days of the campaign to seize Donbas and other regions of Ukraine while trying to overthrow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. Russian officials reportedly plan to integrate the nuclear power plant into the Russian electric grid at the expense of Ukraine, and the staff operating the plant have complained of torture and other abuses.
UKRAINIAN TROOPS WITHDRAWING FROM EMBATTLED SEVERODONETSK
“We are informed that Ukrainian staff are operating the facility under extremely stressful conditions while the site is under the control of Russian armed forces,” Grossi said. “The recent reports are very troubling and further deepen my concern about the well-being of personnel there.”
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is staffed by about 11,000 people, under the watch of 500 Russian troops working “to weed out the Ukrainian partisans,” according to reports.
“People just go missing and never come back,” a power plant technician told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity. “Some people come back, but they have spent a couple of weeks somewhere in a cellar, with no food and no water. … If, God forbid, somebody would find out what I spoke about here, I’m done.”
Grossi emphasized that “the situation at this major nuclear power plant is clearly untenable.” The IAEA chief is pushing to send agency inspectors to visit the plant in person.
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“[E]ssential nuclear material verification activities, such as physical inventory verifications, cannot be done remotely and require the physical presence of IAEA inspectors,” the IAEA press bulletin explained. “The interval of physical inventory verifications at NPPs cannot exceed a specified duration. This is particularly important at two of the units at ZNPP. In addition, these units have been refuelled in recent months and a physical verification of the nuclear material therein is a safeguards pre-requisite before re-starting them.”
