IAEA: Grossi to continue Zaparozhye inspections following dam attack
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi says he will go to the Zaparozhye Nuclear Power Plant and talk to operators there and inspect the situation closely until the situation stabilizes.
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Volunteers conduct evacuations from a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Wednesday, June 7, 2023 (AP)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, announced that the organization will carry on conducting inspections of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) until the regional situation surrounding it stabilizes.
Grossi made reference, in his remarks, to the most recent attack on the Kakhova dam saying "[As] the head of the IAEA, I should not be simply talking about it [securing ZNPP], but going there assessing for myself what is going on, talking to the current management there, talking to the operators there, talking to everybody, having an assessment."
Grossi further explained that "[U]ntil the whole situation stabilizes, we will have to continue doing that and this is why yesterday," stressing that "with the news of the destruction of the [Kakhovka] dam on the Dnipro [river], I announced that I will be coming again to assess what the situation is."
"I feel I have sufficient backing of the international community, including by Russia and Ukraine, to deploy these functions or to make them operational," Grossi said.
He said that the response to his idea has "encouraged" him, but he emphasized the need for caution.
"Of course, we have to deal with this with extreme care. Because given the circumstances and that it is an open conflict, war, whatever you may call it… So, the important thing for me is that they have taken note of it," the IAEA chief said.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Sputnik that he intended to bring up with Ukrainian authorities Russia's worries about Kiev obstructing the agency's measures on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
After his visit to Ukraine the following week, Grossi continued, it will be "only logical" for him to travel to Moscow to continue the discussion about safeguarding the ZNPP.
The Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was blown on Tuesday, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone, according to both Ukrainian and Russian forces who both blamed each other for destroying the dam.
Reports warn against 'critical water levels' that could threaten 80 settlements, TASS reported, citing emergency services. The news outlet revealed that the damage to the dam will also lead to problems with water supplies to Crimea, citing the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka.
The dam was at “unprecedentedly” high levels before today, The Washington Post’s Evan Hill reports.
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) June 6, 2023
On that note, Ukraine’s National Security Council announced that Zelensky will hold an emergency meeting over the dam blast.
Circulating videos on social media showed a series of intense explosions around the Kakhovka dam, and other videos showed water surging through the remains of the dam with bystanders expressing their shock.
The dam, 30 meters (yards) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. It holds an 18 km3 reservoir which also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula and to the Zaporozhye nuclear plant.
Ukrainian armed forces were considering flooding the Dneiper River by destroying the Nova Kakhovka dam back in October, confirming the Russian reports that came out about the matter last year, the Washington Post reported in late December.
The discussions about flooding the Dneiper came as Ukraine was launching an offensive against Russia in Kherson, with Kiev knowing that Russia was heavily reliant on the Antonovsky Bridge, the Antonovsky railway bridge, and the Nova Kakhovka dam, which is part of a hydroelectric facility that has a road on top of it, to supply its soldiers with arms, equipment, food, and other necessary goods.
"There were moments when we turned off their supply lines completely, and they still managed to build crossings," said Major General Andriy Kovalchuk, tasked with leading the Kherson offensive. "They managed to replenish ammunition. … It was very difficult."
The two bridges, the Antonovsky Bridge and the Antonovsky railway bridge were shelled with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, more commonly known as HIMARS, which the United States had given Kiev.
According to the Washington Post, the Major General had mulled flooding the river at one point, putting under water dozens of civilian settlements and risking the lives of thousands. Kovalchuk said the Ukrainian fighters conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhova dam, which saw them making three holes in the metal to see if this would lead the key river's water from getting raised enough to prevent - or hinder - the Russians from using the crossings.
Read more: ZNPP under no threat after Kakhovka dam disaster: Ukraine Ambassador
