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June 15 () –
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned this Thursday that the situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is “serious”, although it has “stabilized” in recent days after the destruction of the New Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region.
“On the one hand, the situation is serious, there are consequences and they are real. On the other hand, a series of measures have been taken to stabilize the situation,” Grossi acknowledged to the Russian news agency Interfax upon leaving the nuclear power plant. from Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine but controlled by Russia.
Likewise, the general director of the IAEA has pointed out that the water reserves in the cooling pond of the nuclear power plant are currently sufficient for the safe work of the facilities, which has affected that, for the moment, it is not necessary to take additional measures.
For his part, the main adviser to the Russian company Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, has recognized that the flow of water from the pond is small due to the limited operation of the plant, and has indicated that these additional measures to which Grossi refers go through the use of portable pumping stations or wells.
The Ukrainian authorities denounced at the beginning of last week the destruction of the New Kajovka dam, which led to massive floods due to the water retained in a reservoir on the Dnieper River and from which the aforementioned Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is fed.
An IAEA delegation visited the plant’s facilities on Thursday for the third time since the outbreak of the war, at the end of February last year. In fact, the body has expert personnel deployed at the plant to supervise its proper functioning.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is considered the largest in Europe, although it has not produced energy since mid-September last year. Russia took control of the facility, highly coveted by both the Russian and Ukrainian authorities.
