On February 16, 2023, during a working visit to the Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plant, President of SE "NNEGC "Energoatom" Petro Kotin together with the Director General of the power plant Andrii Kozyura and the Deputy Chief Engineer for Nuclear and Radiation Safety Vitaliy Litus, met with the inspectors of the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Robert Larsen and Laura Micewski.
Having expressed gratitude for the work of IAEA missions at Ukrainian NPPs, Energoatom President Petro Kotin stressed upon the importance of the constant presence of Agency representatives at the power plants in order to continuously control and monitor nuclear and radiation safety.
"Your mission is undoubtedly crucial and necessary because it contributes to the protection of our nuclear facilities from possible provocations by russia. There have already been many such provocations: missiles and a Shahed drone were recorded flying dangerously close to nuclear reactors as well as a missile fell on the site of the South Ukraine NPP just 300 meters away from the power unit. The presence of IAEA inspectors should deter ruscists from committing similar actions," Energoatom CEO said.
Furthermore, he noted that IAEA inspectors have the opportunity to analyze the impact of russian military attacks on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine and convey relevant information to the entire world community.
As a reminder, since January 2023, permanent missions of the Agency have been working at all Ukrainian nuclear power plants located on Ukraine-controlled territory. IAEA representatives have been present at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP since early September 2022.
The request for the deployment of such missions was received by the International Atomic Energy Agency from the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ministry of Energy.
