2024-01-06 11:57:57
Access to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant: Moscow invokes “security”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not recently have access to the reactor rooms of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia (South) for reasons of ” security “said Friday Moscow, which has occupied the site for almost two years.
An official at the Russian atomic agency Rosenergoatom, Renat Kartchaa, added: “When a reactor compartment is sealed and contained, plant personnel may only be present in emergency situations or to carry out routine work. » “A containment enclosure, and in particular a sealed enclosure, is not a museum or a free walking area”he blurted.
In the hands of Moscow’s forces since March 2022, the power plant, the largest in Europe, has been hit several times by power outages linked to the fighting, and the Russian army regularly accuses Ukraine of threatening it. This precarious situation raises fears of a major nuclear accident, despite the presence of IAEA experts on site.
Tensions between Moscow and kyiv on the subject are recurrent, and the IAEA acts as mediator, while ensuring the security of the site alongside the Russians. However, on Wednesday, the UN agency deplored that its experts had seen their access refused to several parts of the plant. “Over the past two weeks, they have not been allowed access to the reactor rooms of Units 1, 2 and 6”, ” a first “ is about “the containment of a reactor of a shut down unit”said the UN agency in a press release.
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