The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warns of an "increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous situation" around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
The organization reports that it has received information about the evacuation of residents of the city of Energodar, where most of the employees of this nuclear power plant live. IAEA Director Rafael Grossi expressed his deepest concern about the conditions in which these people found themselves, as well as the increase in military activity in the region.
“We must act immediately to prevent the danger of a major incident at a nuclear power plant, as well as its attendant consequences that will affect the population and the environment,” Grossi said.
The IAEA website notes that the organization's experts have not been given access to the ZNPP in recent days. At the same time, Yury Chernichuk, appointed by the occupying authorities as the "director" of the station, who previously held the position of chief engineer at it, assures that the station personnel remain in their places.
Prior to this, on May 6, Chernichuk reported on the shutdown of all six units of the ZNPP. This was done allegedly because of the threat of the Kakhovka reservoir dam breaking and flooding the station. The occupying authorities also said that there was no need to evacuate the station staff and residents of Energodar.
Earlier in April, at the Zaporizhzhya NPP (ZNPP), the windows of the turbine hall of the fourth power unit were knocked out by a blast wave, said Renat Karchaa, adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom. According to him, this happened due to the operation of the UAV. Before that, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, announced "military preparations" at the ZNPP. Experts at the site reported hearing explosions, sometimes indicative of heavy shelling near the nuclear power plant. Zaporozhye NPP has been under the control of Russian troops almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All this time, the authorities controlled by the Russian Federation, including Ukrainian officials who have defected to Russia, have been terrorizing the station’s employees – they are kidnapped, interrogated and tortured. On December 8, two workers were severely beaten , they were taken away in an unknown direction. In July, it became known about the death of Andrey Goncharuk, a diver of the ZNPP hydroshop, due to torture: they tried to force him to drain the cooling pools of the reactors.