Grossi calls situation at Ukrainian NPPs 'extremely challenging'
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday that the situation at Ukrainian nuclear power plants remains "extremely challenging."
He said this during a meeting of the agency's Board of Governors in Vienna, according to Ukrinform citing Sky News.
Grossi highlighted a number of dangerous incidents that have occurred recently, including a strike by a Russian drone on a spent nuclear fuel storage facility located a few kilometers from Chornobyl.
The IAEA chief said that part of the fuel reception building suffered "significant structural damage," while spent fuel is "stored in casks just a few hundred metres" away.
"Attacking a facility with large amounts of nuclear material is extremely dangerous. It must not happen," Grossi said.
He also emphasized that external power supply at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has "been the most serious concern," noting that the plant has been operating for several months on only one backup line after damage sustained in March.
Grossi recalled that on Friday, the sixth local ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine was reached in order to restore the "Dniprovska" power line. According to him, without this line, the external power supply situation at Zaporizhzhia NPP remains "fragile."
The IAEA head also noted that in recent days the plant experienced its 18th external power outage since the start of the full-scale war.
"With a duration of 15 hours, it was also one of its longest, necessitating the use of emergency diesel generators to cool the six shut down reactors until offsite power was restored on Saturday morning," Grossi said.
As Ukrinform reported, at the site of the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF), a Russian drone strike overnight on June 7 partially destroyed the container reception building; no spent nuclear fuel was stored there.
The IAEA said it would urgently send its inspectors to the damaged Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in the Chornobyl zone to assess the extent of the destruction after the Russian drone strike overnight on June 7.
On Friday, June 5, the IAEA said it had secured a temporary local ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia that would allow repairs to the power line to Zaporizhzhia NPP.