The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that landmines have been found at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP) occupied by Russian troops.
On July 23, IAEA experts “noticed some mines located in the buffer zone between the internal and external perimeter barriers of the facility,” the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, said in a statement on Monday.
The statement did not reveal how many mines the team saw.
The mines were located in “closed areas” inaccessible to station personnel, Grossi said, adding that according to the IAEA’s preliminary assessment, the detonation of the mines “should not affect the facility’s nuclear safety and security systems.”
Placing explosives at the facility “does not meet IAEA safety standards and nuclear safety guidelines” and puts additional psychological pressure on personnel, he added.
The IAEA said last week that its experts had carried out inspections at the power plant and found no mines, although they had not been given access to the roofs of the reactor buildings.
The IAEA has still not been able to gain access to the roofs of the reactor buildings and their turbine halls, it said in its latest statement.
After falling into Russian hands, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been shelled and disconnected from the power grid several times, raising fears of a major nuclear accident.
The six reactor units that produced about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before the war have been shut down for months.
Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Photo: AFP/Scanpix
2023-07-25 04:39:29
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