Russia and Ukraine are very unlikely to strike a deal on maintaining the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant unless the fighting is stopped, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Thursday.
“Reaching a written agreement would be unrealistic at this stage because – as we know, there are no peace or ceasefire negotiations between the parties,” Grossi was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS after he had arrived at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which sits dangerously close to the front line.
The IAEA team inspected the facility 10 days after the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam collapsed and drained reservoir used to cool the plant’s reactors. Grossi said that the water level at the cooling pond was sufficient to keep the ZNPP operational for the time being.
“On the one hand, we can see that the situation is serious, the consequences [of the dam’s destruction] are there, and they are real,” Grossi told reporters. “At the same time, there are measures that are being taken to stabilize the situation.”