UN access at Ukraine nuclear plant curbed for safety: Russia

UN access at Ukraine nuclear plant curbed for safety: Russia
by AFP Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Jan 5, 2024

Russia confirmed Friday it had blocked the UN's nuclear watchdog from accessing parts of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia power plant, but said it was for safety reasons.

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been on the ground monitoring the plant since September 2022, six months after it was captured by Moscow's forces.

Responding to an IAEA statement saying their team had been blocked from reactor halls, Renat Karchaa, an official at Russia's Rosatom, alleged they tried to access "containment shells".

"A containment shell, and especially a sealed one, is not a museum or an area for free walks," Karchaa told Russia's RBC news outlet.

"While in 'sealed' mode, personnel access to the containment shells is prohibited and is only permitted with unambiguous justification and in emergency cases," he added.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi had said in a statement Wednesday that experts had not been allowed to access reactor halls in three of the plant's units for two weeks.

He said the IAEA would continue to request access to the reactor halls, where the reactor core and spent fuel are located.

"The content of the latest statement gives us reason to assume that either Rafael Grossi was not informed fully enough, or the information was submitted by people with low professional training, which is hard to believe," Karchaa said.

The plant stopped supplying electricity to Ukraine's grid in September 2022, and has been repeatedly rocked by shelling and drone attacks throughout the conflict.

IAEA says blocked from some Zaporizhzhia reactor halls
Vienna (AFP) Jan 3, 2024 - The UN nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it had recently been blocked for the first time from inspecting the reactor halls of three units of Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhia power plant, further limiting access to the site.

The nuclear plant has been at the centre of fighting since it was captured by Russian forces in 2022, and both sides have accused each other of compromising its safety.

The surroundings of the plant have been repeatedly targeted by shelling, which resulted in the plant being severed from the grid several times, raising fears of a major nuclear accident.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts "for the past two weeks... have not been allowed to access the reactor halls of units 1, 2 and 6," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

"This is the first time that IAEA experts have not been granted access to a reactor hall of a unit that was in cold shutdown," the statement added.

Furthermore, access to some parts of the plant's turbine halls continues to be restricted, and the IAEA is still awaiting access to the reactor rooftops planned on 19 December that "didn't happen due to stated security concerns".

Grossi said his team will continue to request access to the reactor halls, where the reactor core and spent fuel are located.

Since September 2022, IAEA officials have been on the ground monitoring safety at the plant, which requires constant maintenance to prevent overheating.

It stopped supplying electricity to Ukraine's grid in September 2022, and has been repeatedly rocked by shelling and drone attacks throughout the conflict.