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U.N. Nuclear Inspectors Are in Ukraine to Visit the Zaporizhzhia Plant


KYIV, Ukraine – An international team of nuclear inspectors arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday as part of an adventurous trip to assess the safety of a nuclear power plant that has been repeatedly hit by artillery fire. , which hopes to give the world its first fair look at the threat.

The Zaporizhzhia . nuclear power plantthis is the first facility in the history of civilian nuclear energy development where operational reactors are threatened by military conflict, controlled by the Russian military but operated by Ukrainian engineers.

Conditions at the site, which was blanketed in smoke on Monday by wildfires raging nearby, have been unraveling for weeks. An image released Monday by a commercial satellite company shows black holes punched by artillery on the roof of a building.

Inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, say on Twitter. The IAEA’s mission to the plant is one of the most complex ever for the agency, which has also worked in Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said the arrangements for the mission were complex and subject to change, but the team could arrive at the plant as early as possible. Wednesday.

To reach the factory, inspectors had to cross a front line in the ongoing war in southern Ukraine. Neither side declared a ceasefire for the visit.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the President of Ukraine, shows the difficulty of the task, tweeted that Russian forces “deliberately shelled” possible routes to the site to prevent the mission from continuing despite official Russian approval.

The plant is located near the site of gun battles between the Russian and Ukrainian armies, which are firing at each other across the Dnipro River, the vast waterway in central Ukraine that marks the front.

Employees who fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory said Russian troops had parked armored vehicles in two engine rooms near the reactors. Ukrainian officials have called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from the Russian military plant, who they say is using it to stage artillery attacks while Ukraine cannot return fire without risking it. radiation. Russia blamed Ukraine for shelling the factory.

National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby said the US government on Monday called for a controlled shutdown of the two remaining reactors in operation. The United States has also called for the demilitarization of the area around the plant to reduce the risk of radiation. “A nuclear power plant is not a suitable site for combat operations,” Mr. Kirby said, adding that cycling down to working reactors was “the safest option”.

Fighting continued to be intense near the factory. Ukrainian officials on Tuesday said rockets hit the Ukrainian town of Nikopol, hitting a bus stop, shops and a children’s library. Nikopol is located on the western bank of a reservoir formed by the Dnipro Dam; Zaporizhzhia factory is located on the east bank.





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