The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency hopes to be able to go very soon to the site, occupied by the Russians.
Interview by and
After meeting Russian officials in Istanbul, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, was in Paris, Thursday, August 25, to chat with Emmanuel Macron of his future visit , “probable”, on the site of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, in Ukraine. A delicate mission, he explains in an interview with the world, while the security of the largest central in Europe is undermined by war.
You are optimistic about power Go quickly to Zaporijia. Are all obstacles to this mission raised?
There are political, technical and logistical challenges to this visit. At the political level, before, not everyone was aligned. First there were objections on the Ukrainian side, then on the Russian side … But, since my speech to the United Nations Security Council, on August 11, I have felt a new impetus. That day, the fifteen members of the Council and Ukraine spoke. And all ended up agreeing, despite the obvious political differences and mutual accusations, as for the need for this movement of the agency to Ukraine. The international community understood that the risk was too important: one cannot add to the drama of this war a nuclear accident.
There are logistics questions. It is a long journey, Ukraine is vast and it must be crossed in safety conditions that are not ideal. We do not have armored vehicles, we must count on the support of the United Nations vehicles … It is an operation where the military forces of the two camps must work together: at one point, by force of things, we will pass Ukrainian hands with Russian hands, which control Zaporijia. So we need security guarantees. Furthermore, my intention is that after this mission, experts from the agency can remain permanently in Zaporijia, and I work on an agreement in this sense.
What can this mission serve ?
It aims at the safety and safety of the installation, that is to say its normal and unhindered operation. We will start with an inventory of the situation before repairing the essentials, restarting the transmission systems that have been damaged. We will also inspect the storage pools of the worn fuel and attack the sensitive question of the supply of electricity, which is essential for the cooling of the reactors. It is a recurring problem since the start of military operations. The accident of [the nuclear power plant of] Fukushima [in Japan, in 2011] took place because there was no more cooling system.
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