The IAEA affirms that for the moment it has not found mines or explosives in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

July 12 () –

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported this Wednesday that the organization’s experts in charge of inspecting the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant have so far not located mines or explosives that, according to Ukraine, Russia would have placed.

However, the agency has stressed that the group of experts is still waiting to receive permission to access the roofs of reactor units 3 and 4. Meanwhile, the IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, has insisted that the security situation continues to be “very precarious”.

The IAEA has issued a statement in which it recalls that its experts have heard in recent days a series of explosions that “apparently took place at a certain distance” from the nuclear power plant, but that they remain “a clear reminder of possible security risks nuclear”.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared at the end of June that Russian troops present at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, had mined the facilities on the orders of Moscow, which would be planning a terrorist attack there, if well the Kremlin has denied it.

The IAEA has already warned on previous occasions that, despite not having located mines at the plant, in the past it has found explosives “outside the perimeter” of the nuclear facilities and “in particular places inside.” Ukraine still insists that Russia has mined the site.

The nuclear power plant, which has up to six reactors, has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, in the context of the war in Ukraine, and last summer the regular shelling of the facilities caused problems with the external power supply. . For safety reasons, the plant was put into a cold shutdown.