On January 16, 2023, a team of the International Atomic Energy Agency led by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and accompanied by Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko, President of SE «NNEGC «Energoatom» Petro Kotin and Acting Chairman of State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine Oleh Korikov arrived at South Ukraine NPP site.
During the IAEA flag raising over the power plant site, Rafael Grossi highlighted the importance of the permanent mission of IAEA experts who will be present at the SUNPP for continuous inspection and monitoring of nuclear and radiation safety. The same missions, consisting of two IAEA experts at each, will start working at all nuclear power plants in Ukraine in the near-term.
«Given the risks entailed by military actions on the territory of Ukraine, we came to the necessity of deployment permanent IAEA missions at each Ukrainian nuclear facility,» Rafael Grossi said. He reminded that the request for such deployment came from the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ministry of Energy.
Herman Halushchenko thanked for agreeing to the permanent presence of IAEA missions at Ukrainian NPPs and stressed that the Agency's experts would analyze the impact of russian military strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, while the findings would be disseminated to the entire world community.
Petro Kotin also welcomed the IAEA decision to launch permanent missions at Ukrainian power plants and noted that their presence would help protect our nuclear facilities from possible provocations by russia.
«We have already seen these provocations: missiles flying perilously close to nuclear reactors, a Shahed drone directly above the South Ukraine nuclear power plant, and a missile falling on its site, just 300 meters away from the power unit, were recorded. The presence of IAEA inspectors should deter ruscists from committing similar actions,» the President of Energoatom said.
As a reminder, last fall, the International Atomic Energy Agency experts arrived at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP. Since then, a permanent IAEA mission, which monitors the situation under constant shelling of the ZNPP by the russian military, has been working at the power plant.
