IAEA chief to visit Kyiv substation to “help prevent nuclear accident”
4 February 2025 06:15
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will visit the Kyiv substation today, February 4, as part of his visit to Kyiv. This is his 11th visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war. Grossi announced this in the social network X, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Raphaël Grossi said he was “heading to the Kyiv substation” to “assess the damage and help prevent a nuclear accident.”
“On my 11th visit to Ukraine since the start of the war, I am heading to the Kyiv substation, critical to the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power industry, to assess the damage and help prevent a nuclear accident,” the IAEA director general wrote.
He noted that the vulnerability of the power grid poses a growing risk to all nuclear power plants, not just Zaporizhzhia NPP
The 36th IAEA mission has already started working in Ukraine
The IAEA teams in Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, South Ukraine and Chernobyl changed last week. They will continue to monitor nuclear and radiation safety at Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the face of Russian aggression.
The rotation of IAEA experts at Zaporizhzhya NPP will take place this week.
Over the past week, the IAEA teams present at Ukrainian nuclear power plants continued to report on the ongoing military risks faced by nuclear facilities.
For example, at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the IAEA team hears explosions outside the plant every day. The mission’s experts emphasize the ongoing problems associated with ensuring external power supply through a single power line. Last week, this line was disconnected due to the activation of the protection system.
The IAEA teams at other Ukrainian NPPs and at the Chornobyl site have been recording air threats on a daily basis, with Russian drones detected at various distances from the facilities.
The task of the 36th IAEA mission was defined by its head as follows: “to verify that the IAEA’s seven core principles of nuclear safety and security are being met at nuclear power plant sites”.
