U.N. Nuclear Boss Heads to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

KYIV (Reuters) – The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog set off on Wednesday for Russian-occupied southeastern Ukraine to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station for the second time since Moscow’s forces invaded last year.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says he is traveling to Europe’s largest nuclear power station to review the situation there as part of a push to reduce the risk of a major accident.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the site of the power station over the last year. Grossi has pushing for a safety agreement between Ukraine and Russia to protect the facility.

An IAEA spokesperson confirmed Grossi was on his way to the plant. He said Grossi was in the Zaporizhzhia region, but declined to say where. He shared a photograph of Grossi standing in body armor by an armored U.N. car on the side of a road.

Grossi told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that his attempt to broker a deal to protect the nuclear plant was still alive, and that he was adjusting the proposals to seek a breakthrough.

Grossi, who met President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, described the situation at the plant as “very dangerous” and very unstable.

The IAEA has had its own monitors stationed at the Zaporizhzhia plant since last year, when Grossi traveled to the facility and fears were mounting of the possibility for a nuclear accident.