The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, today arrived at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), with an IAEA team of nuclear safety, security and safeguards staff, to deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems.
"Today marks 36 years since the Chornobyl nuclear power plant accident, the most severe in the history of nuclear power. I am here to pay respect to the victims of the nuclear accident and to all those who have worked tirelessly to rebuild and protect this place," Director General Grossi said.
"I am also honoured to meet the current Chornobyl NPP staff and personally thank them for their resilience and courage during these extremely difficult times. They have my and all at the IAEA's full respect and admiration - they are heroes."
Director General Grossi and his team were updated by Ukraine counterparts on the current nuclear and radiation safety, and nuclear security, situation of Ukraine's nuclear facilities. "The Agency and Ukraine have today agreed to set up a working group on Chornobyl NPP to coordinate IAEA assistance and support to staff who are working hard to keep Ukraine's nuclear sites safe and secure," he said.
Director General Grossi then travelled to Kyiv to meet the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "I was honoured to meet the President and we had a thorough discussion on the safety and security situation at Ukrainian nuclear facilities. I assured him that the IAEA will continue to support Ukraine."
Ukraine separately informed the IAEA today that there had been no significant new developments related to nuclear safety and security in the country over the past 24 hours, Director General Grossi said.
Regarding the country's 15 operational reactors at four nuclear power plants, Ukraine said seven are currently connected to the grid, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya NPP, two at the Rivne NPP, two at the South Ukraine NPP, and one at the Khmelnytskyy NPP. The eight other reactors are shut down for regular maintenance or held in reserve. Safety systems remain operational at the four NPPs and they also continue to have off-site power available, Ukraine said.
In relation to safeguards, the IAEA said it was still not receiving remote data transmission from its monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP, but such data was being transferred to IAEA headquarters from the other NPPs in Ukraine.
