IAEA still has no access to roofs of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant power units but says there are no mines there
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are still waiting to be given access to the roofs of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), but they continue to assert that they have no evidence that Russian occupation forces planted explosive devices there.
Source: IAEA statement
Details: IAEA experts "are still waiting to gain the necessary access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 following recent reports that explosives may have been placed there, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, adding that the nuclear safety and security situation remains very precarious," the IAEA statement noted.
The IAEA experts also said they have not seen "any mines or explosives" at the ZNPP so far.
The experts "have in recent days continued to inspect parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – without seeing any mines or explosives", the IAEA statement stressed.
In recent days, the IAEA experts "have heard a series of explosions apparently taking place some distance away from the ZNPP". While they could not determine the exact locations of the explosions, the IAEA experts confirmed that the site had not been impacted.
Background:
- On 4 July, the Armed Forces of Ukraine issued a warning that Russian forces may be preparing for a false-flag operation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and had placed explosive-like objects on the roofs of two power units.
- On 5 July, the IAEA said that its experts had found no evidence that explosive objects had been placed at the ZNPP; however, they still called on civilians to "stay alert".
- Planet Labs, a satellite imaging firm, detected several new objects on the roof of power unit No. 4 at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
- Sergey Kirienko, the first deputy head of the administration of the Russian President, visited the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on 6 July.
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