MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has assured that the presidents of Russia and Ukraine have a “manifest” willingness to accept the establishment of a protection zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
According to the director of the IAEA, Vladimir Putin and Volodimir Zelenski, the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, respectively, are willing to reach an agreement mediated by the agency in order to ensure that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe ceases to be “in a situation so precarious”, according to Grossi in an interview with the newspaper ‘La Nación’.
“There is a disposition that is for me, expressed by both leaders, which is to work with me, with the IAEA, and accept that the establishment of this protection zone is a feasible objective. Otherwise, they would tell me ‘don’t waste time, I don’t agree, you can’t,'” asserted the organization’s general secretary.
In this sense, Grossi has underlined the importance of reaching an agreement at a time when the Ukrainian troops are carrying out “a major counteroffensive” and in which the Russian forces are trying to take measures to date said counteroffensive.
“With an increase in armed exchanges, the possibility of an accident at the nuclear power plant also rises. Therefore, I insist even more on the need to reach that agreement,” added the director of the atomic body.
Asked about the demands of both parties to establish a protection zone around the plant, Grossi has maintained that he cannot relate the requests of both Russia and Ukraine, although he has advanced that both countries have promised not to fire on the nuclear plant or not to affect it in its peripheral structure.
The director general of the IAEA has warned that the danger “is very real” at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, describing its situation as “enormously precarious”.
“The danger is very real. I evaluate things against the reports of my inspectors. One of the most important things that the agency achieved after my visit was to establish a permanent mission of observers in the plant and this is crucial because also in a war the narratives are contradictory”, said Grossi.
However, he has confessed that the situation is not worse than before the intervention of the IAEA, but that it is still “just as bad”, as he has detailed to ‘La Nación’.
Responding to the possibility of an incident such as the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant being repeated, Grossi has specified that it depends on the number of reactors that stop receiving electricity supply.
“In this case, we are dealing with much safer plants, which do not have all these characteristics. However, if the plants were to stop receiving electricity, all their cooling would be interrupted. And that can lead to the famous ‘meltdown’. That is to say , to the melting of the reactor core, with the obvious release of radiation into the environment”, he explained.
“The amount would depend on how many plants, because there are six. And in addition to that you have to add the used fuel that is there in deposits, which could also be the object of an attack. With this, what I am going to do is that the risk possibilities are multiple”, added Grossi.
However, the director general of the IAEA has ruled out Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons against Ukraine, recalling that the Kremlin’s doctrine allows the use of this type of weapon only in the case of being attacked by a nuclear weapon or in which it is put. the very existence of the state is at risk.
“This is an ongoing war, but as of today I do not see that configuration of factors. Although obviously the risk could not be completely excluded,” he specified.
