Grossi (IAEA) Visits Kursk NPP: Real Danger of Nuclear Accident
IAEA Director: “We have proposals to maintain the safety of the Kursk NPP”
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), personally inspected the Russian Kursk nuclear power plant located in the city of Kurchatov. Before arriving at the power plant, Grossi wrote on his agency’s website that “the safety of all nuclear power plants is of fundamental importance, and for this reason Grossi decided to personally lead a mission to the Kursk NPP in the Russian Federation.”
Immediately upon his arrival in Kurchatov, Grossi thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for inviting him to the Kursk NPP, where the IAEA delegation assessed the situation following Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian region that began on August 6. During his visit to the nuclear power plant, Grossi asked in front of the cameras to express his “gratitude to the Russian head of state for the invitation he received to visit the nuclear power plant under such extraordinary conditions.”
“My visit,” Grossi said after visiting all the most important parts of the Russian power plant, “is due to the fact that there is fighting in the immediate vicinity of the power plant. There is a danger of a nuclear accident here.”
During talks with the heads of the Russian state agency Rosenergoatom, the operator of Russia’s nuclear power plants, Grossi said the IAEA “can propose a number of steps and measures to maintain the nuclear safety regime at the Kursk NPP.”
“Kursk NPP is a nuclear power plant located on the territory of the Russian Federation, under control of the Russian Federation and is currently in operation. We, as representatives of the IAEA, can propose a number of steps and technical measures aimed at maintaining the nuclear safety regime,” Grossi said, according to whom “the IAEA has a consolidated process of cooperation and interaction with the services and representatives of Rosatom, the Russian Armed Forces, the special services, and the Foreign Ministry. Together with all these participants, we discuss what can be done to prevent a radiation accident at the plant, but in the end the rule is very simple: do not attack the nuclear power plant.”
Since the beginning of the Ukrainian invasion of Russian territory, Kursk NPP has been attacked several times by drones packed with explosives. President Putin has said that the occupation of the Kursk power plant is one of the main goals of the Ukrainian military operation in Russia.
