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‘Very dangerous’ situation at Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says IAEA chief
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog,
Rafael Grossi, has described the situation at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern
Ukraine as “very dangerous” and very unstable.
The nuclear facility has lost its external power supply six times since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, forcing emergency diesel generators to kick in to cool its reactors.
Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the water level in a nearby reservoir controlled by Russian forces was another potential danger. Water supplied by the reservoir is used to cool the reactors.
He told Reuters:
If the reservoir level goes down beyond a certain level, then you don’t have water to cool down the reactors, and we have seen especially in January that the levels of the water were going down significantly. They recovered somehow in the past few weeks.
He added that there had been increasing military activity in the region without giving details.
Grossi, who yesterday met with President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station, northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant, said his attempt to broker a deal to protect the plant was still alive, and that he was adjusting the proposals to seek a breakthrough.
The nuclear facility has lost its external power supply six times since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago
www.theguardian.com