Security of Chornobyl NPP is responsibility of those who control it - IAEA

The security and effective performance of duties by personnel of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant must be guaranteed by those who have taken control of it.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said this in a statement, Ukrinform reports.

"It is of utmost importance that the staff working at the Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant are able to do their job safely and effectively, and that their personal wellbeing is guaranteed by those who have taken control," Grossi said.

He added that operating staff at all of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities – which also include 15 operational reactors at four sites – must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.

Grossi has repeatedly stressed that any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants must be avoided.

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) said it maintained communications with the country’s nuclear power plants, which it said continued to operate as before. Radiation levels remained normal at all sites and there had been no reports of nuclear or radiological incidents, it said.

It was also reported that the IAEA on March 1 lost contact with such stations at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest of Ukraine’s nuclear sites with six out of its 15 reactors, and today stopped receiving the same kind of data from another plant, the South Ukrainian NPP, with three units.

However, SNRIU later informed the IAEA that contact with the monitoring stations at the South Ukrainian NPP had been restored, saying the temporary loss of transmission to the IAEA was due to technical reasons and not related to military operations. Ukrainian specialists were seeking to determine the cause of the lost data transfer from the Zaporizhzhia NPP and to restore it, SNRIU added.