The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed on Thursday the second rotation of the team of professionals it has deployed at the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, located in the region of the same name, annexed by Russia at the end of September.
«Thanks to the support of all parties concerned, we were able to successfully carry out a staff rotation at the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant a few hours ago,» said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
«I am deeply grateful to all our experts, both arriving and departing, for their determination and courage in carrying out important safety and security activities at the plant,» Grossi added, the IAEA said in a statement.
The new team will continue to monitor ‘in situ’ the situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, in the vicinity of which Ukrainian and Russian forces have come under attack in recent months. The IAEA has called in vain for the creation of a safe zone in the vicinity.
The plant is located in a region which Russia now claims as its own and, in fact, in the same week of the first personnel turnover, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree stating that the facilities should also officially pass into Russian hands – they already control them ‘de facto’ since the beginning of March.
