"Atomic Energy Caravan" Is Visiting Zaporizhia
The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that an inspection team of the International Atomic Energy Agency is on its way to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, which has been bombed in recent weeks.
"We are finally moving after efforts that lasted for several months. The International Atomic Energy Agency is moving inside the Zaporizhia Nuclear Plant," Grossi told reporters in Kyiv before his departure. It is worth noting that Zaporizhia Nuclear Plant is the largest in Europe and controlled by the Russian army since the beginning of March.
The upcoming visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation to inspect the nuclear plant comes after the Ukrainian state company operating the Zaporizhia plant announced, last Thursday, that this plant was "completely" disconnected from the Ukrainian electricity network after the lines connecting it to the network were cut off, for the first time in its history.
Ukrainian officials announced that the plant was briefly disconnected from the national power grid for the first time in 40 years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "the IAEA's reaction should be much faster than it is."
Zaporizhia is under the control of Russia
- Russian forces have taken control of the Zaporizhia station since early March.
- For weeks, Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of bombing the Zaporizhia station.
- Russia, in turn, accuses Ukrainian forces of targeting the station with drone strikes, while Ukraine accuses Russia of storing heavy weapons at the Zaporizhia station and using it as a base to launch strikes on Ukrainian sites.
- Moscow denies storing weapons at the station and asserts that it has deployed only forces there to ensure its safety.
- The United Nations called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the station to ensure the security of the site and to allow for inspections.
What do we know about Zaporizhia nuclear plant?
- The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant was designed in the times of the former Soviet Union and construction began in 1980.
- The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant contains 6 reactors, called VVIR-1000 V-320 "hydro-hydro-capacity" reactors.
- The reactors are cooled by water and their neutrons are cooled down by water, and they work with uranium-235, whose half-life is estimated at more than 700 million years.
- Its sixth reactor was connected to the grid in 1995.
- It is the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest power plants in the world.
- Each of the six Zaporizhia units has a net capacity of 950 MW or a total of 5.7 GW.
- It covers 20 percent of Ukraine's electricity consumption.
