Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — On the sidelines of the 70th session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev met with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
The meeting was also attended by Rostekhnadzor Head Alexander Trembitsky and Russia’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.
The central topic of the talks was the nuclear and physical safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and the situation in Enerhodar, the satellite city of the plant.
Likhachev said that the situation at the site had sharply deteriorated since the end of April, with more than 750 drone and artillery strikes carried out against the ZNPP and Enerhodar over the past four and a half months. According to him, 20 people were killed during this period, including nine plant employees, while more than 100 others were injured.
The Rosatom chief separately pointed to strikes on fuel tankers delivering diesel fuel for the plant’s nuclear safety needs. Grossi, in turn, expressed readiness to consider options for IAEA assistance in carrying out such operations.
Likhachev also called on the Agency’s Secretariat not to limit itself to recording the strikes, but also to establish those specifically responsible.
Grossi reaffirmed his commitment to dialogue with Russia on issues related to the safety of the ZNPP.
The sides also discussed the more than four-year presence of the IAEA monitoring group at the plant and agreed to maintain close contact.
