IAEA Chief says burned-out cooling tower at Zaporizhzhia NPP requires demolition
Photo: Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (Getty Images)
The head of the UN nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, has stated that the cooling tower at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was severely damaged by a fire last month. He believes the structure will likely need to be demolished, according to Reuters.
Grossi made this statement during his latest visit to the plant. He posted a video on the social media platform X, assessing the damage while standing inside the cooling tower.
"Until today, we hadn't been able to get to this point, high up in the tower, so we can assess in a much better way the damage that occurred. This big structure is not usable in the future, so it will probably be demolished at some point," Grossi said.
The video also shows Grossi inspecting the water pumping station, which has been affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP in southern Ukraine last year. He also visited the nuclear fuel storage facility.
Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday and stated that the situation is very fragile in Zaporizhzhia, where IAEA inspectors have been stationed since mid-2022.
Fire at Zaporizhzhya NPP
The fire at the nuclear plant occurred on August 11. It did not pose a risk of harmful substance leakage, and the plant continued to operate normally.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the fire at the plant was caused by Russian troops.
Ukrainian Energoatom considers the likely causes of the fire to be either the negligence of Russian troops or deliberate arson.
As of August 13, IAEA experts had been unable to determine the cause of the fire.
