permission to inspect the roofs of ZAEP power units is not yet available

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Raphael Grossi, reported that the UN experts have not yet gained access to the roofs of the nuclear reactor power units of the Zaporizhzhya NPP in Energodar, which is occupied by Russian military personnel. Grossi said this on Friday, July 7, while on a trip to Japan.

Earlier this week, Ukraine and Russia exchanged accusations of preparing an attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine. In particular, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, referring to intelligence data, warned that the Russian military had placed explosives on the roofs of “several” ZAES power units.

On July 5, the head of the IAEA requested from the Russian authorities access for the organization’s experts to the roofs of the 3rd and 4th power units. “I am quite confident that we will get this permission,” Rafael Grossi emphasized on Friday in Tokyo. He noted that this is an “active zone of hostilities”, so sometimes it “takes one or two days” to get a permit.

Raphael Grossi also said that the employees of his agency “made some progress” in inspecting a number of premises of the Zaporozhye NPP after receiving information that the station could be mined. In addition to access to power unit roofs, IAEA experts planned to inspect part of the engine rooms and cooling systems. As Grossi said, inspectors visited the territory where water tanks are located “and other places.” The UN experts did not see any signs that there might be explosives there, the head of the agency added.

This week, it was also reported that Radio Liberty and the investigative project “Schemy” discovered new objects that were not there two days ago on Planet.com satellite images taken on the morning of July 5. The objects are located on the roof of the 4th power unit, which was mined by the Russian army on Tuesday this week, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. According to the headquarters, the roof of the 3rd power unit was also mined.

Additional journalistic analysis of satellite images by Planet Labs showed that the first extraneous objects on the roof of the 4th power unit of ZAES (in the second place and in the second quantity compared to the location on the image on July 5) appeared no earlier than April 26 of this year. On some pictures taken after this date, but before July 5, you can also see white dots that were not there either in April or earlier. This confirms that in recent months, the Russian occupation forces placed unknown objects on the roof of the nuclear power plant.