UN Nuclear Agency to Help Security Ukraine's Nuclear Plants

The head of the UN Agency for Nuclear Affairs said special agreements have been reached with Ukrainian and Russian authorities on the kind of assistance his agency will provide, while Russia's attack on Ukraine has entered in the second month.

Fear has been high during the five-week war for a possible nuclear incident, while Russia bombards indiscriminately different parts of Ukraine. On March 3rd, bombings around the Zaporizija nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine further increased fears.

“delivered some equipment. It is a start”, International Nuclear Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi told reporters after returning to Vienna on Friday from a field visit to Ukraine and meetings in Russia. But we have some structured activities that will start next week”.

Assistance will include sending teams of experts and equipment, as well as creating a fast aid mechanism.

If there is an emergency situation that can happen, we are creating a mechanism in the vicinity through which we can send a team to assess the situation and help almost immediately”, Mr. Gross said.

Early in the attack, Russian forces took over the dysfunctional Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On Thursday, it was confirmed that the Russians would leave. There were reports that hundreds of Russian soldiers had been poisoned by radiation after digging holes in the most polluted area called the Red Forest.

Grossi said the general state of radiation around the plant is currently “normal heads” and that it cannot confirm reports that Russian soldiers were getting sick.

“There was a relatively high level of localised radiation due to the movement of heavy vehicles during the plant's capture, and it seems the same situation was created during the departure of”, Mr. Gross said. We heard about the access to personnel that may have been contaminated, but we have no confirmation of this”.

The general director said members of his staff will go to “very quickly to” in Chernobyl, and that there is a lot of technical work to do, as many remote monitoring capacities have been lost, which need to be re-established. He said this could be accomplished quickly.