IAEA head to visit Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant next week

Reuters

Published Mar 25, 2023 03:45PM ET

(Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine next week to assess the serious situation there, he announced on Saturday.

Grossi is pressing for a security zone to be erected around what is Europe's largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors, which has come under repeated shelling over the past months.

It will be his second visit. Last September he went there and established a permanent presence of IAEA experts.

Russian troops occupied the facility early in their invasion of Ukraine and it remains near the front line. Both sides blame each other for the shelling.

"The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is still precarious," Grossi said in the statement, saying he wanted "to assess first-hand the serious nuclear safety and security situation at the facility".