Visit Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Head of IAEA Ensures Several Experts Stay in Nuclear Power

JAKARTA - The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog, ignoring gunfire he said occurred uncomfortably, visited the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine on Thursday, ensuring its experts would stay at the facility.

Rafael Grossi, who spent several hours at the plant, said he would continue to worry until the situation in Zaporizhzhia stabilizes.

Both Russia and Ukraine have said they fear a possible radiation disaster as a result of the shooting, which both sides blame.

Grossi said he had been able to tour the entire site, looking at key areas such as emergency systems and control rooms.

His team now needs to do a lot of work to complete its analysis of the worrying technical aspects.

"We're not going anywhere. The IAEA is now there, at the plant and not moving, it will stay there," said Grossi, looking tired after what he called a long day.

"We will continue to be present at the factory with some of my experts," he told reporters as he crossed back into Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The experts, he said, would provide what he called a neutral and impartial technical assessment of what was happening on the ground.

Grossi said experts would dig deeper into the conditions and submit a report.

"Obviously the plant and the physical integrity of the plant have been violated, several times. This is something that cannot continue to happen," he stressed.

It is known that the IAEA team, which crossed the front line into Russian-controlled territory, was delayed by several hours by firing near the factory site.

"This morning the situation was quite difficult but, so far, I will not stop," said Grossi.

"There were times where the fire was clearly visible, heavy machine guns, artillery mortars, on two or three occasions (it) was really very concerning, I would say for all of us," he said.