The visit from the 14-member expert delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency came after months of negotiations to get inside Europe's biggest nuclear plant.
The Associated PressIAEA team arrives at Zaporizhzhia power plantA team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to investigate and assess the risk of a radiation disaster. Both Ukraine and Russia are accusing each other of various military operations in the area.
"The IAEA is now there at the plant and it's not moving. It's going to stay there. We're going to have a continued presence there at the plant with some of my experts," Rafael Grossi, the mission leader, declared after the group got its first look at conditions inside. "There were moments when fire was obvious — heavy machine guns, artillery, mortars at two or three times were really very concerning, I would say, for all of us," Grossi said.
Once inside the plant, Grossi said, his experts were able to tour the entire site, including control rooms, emergency systems and diesel generators. He said he met with the plant's staff and residents of the nearby village, Energodar, who asked him for help from the agency. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had tough words for the IAEA delegation. While applauding its arrival at the plant, he said independent journalists were kept from covering the visit, allowing the Russians to present a one-sided, "futile tour."
Experts have expressed concern that the staff is overworked and stressed out from the occupation of the plant by Russian forces, raising the risk of a dangerous error.
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