UN trying to conclude deal to protect Zaporozhye NPP
2023.03.28 13:21
UN trying to conclude deal to protect Zaporozhye NPP
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – On Tuesday, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said that his attempt to broker a deal to protect Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was still alive and that he was adjusting the proposals in an effort to find a way to move forward.
A day before he is expected to visit Europe’s largest nuclear power station in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi spoke with Reuters.
Grossi has been pushing for a wellbeing zone to be made at the plant to forestall a potential atomic catastrophe as Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for shelling the site of the power station since Russia attacked Ukraine in February last year.
In an interview conducted in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, Grossi stated, “We are making some adjustments on the proposals that we are putting on the table.”
“I am confident that some form of protection can be established, perhaps with less emphasis on the concept of a zone and more on the protection itself: what people should or shouldn’t do to protect the plant instead of thinking of themselves as territorial.”
The details of the deal that has been proposed have not been made public.
Diplomats claim that a defined radius around the plant to mark the zone is no longer included in Grossi’s most recent proposal.
A deal that actually acknowledges or permits a Russian military presence at the plant is not what Ukraine wants. The elimination of heavy weapons and the prohibition on firing at or from the plant are additional components of Grossi’s strategy.
“I am in no way giving up. Grossi stated, “I think on the contrary we need to increase our efforts and continue.”
Without providing any specifics, he stated that military activity had increased in the region.
On Monday, Grossi met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He said that the plant’s situation was “very dangerous” and very unstable. Since Russia’s invasion, it has lost external power six times, necessitating the use of emergency diesel generators to cool its reactors.
Another potential threat, according to Grossi, was the level of water in a nearby reservoir that is controlled by Russian forces. The reservoir’s water is used to cool the reactors.
“You don’t have water to cool the reactors if the reservoir level drops below a certain level, and we saw this especially in January when the water levels were dropping significantly. “In the last few weeks, they somehow recovered,” he stated.
Since last year, the IAEA has its own monitors based at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Grossi attributed a dispute over the route they were supposed to take between Russia and Ukraine to the recent delay in their rotation.
“We had agreed upon a route. “It took a tremendous amount of time to come to an agreement,” he stated. “All of a sudden that route was not agreed upon anymore.
