IAEA chief says situation around Kursk NPP remains tense, but no permanent mission planned

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi has said the situation remained serious around Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant, but his agency planned no permanent mission at the site.

That is according to Reuters, Ukrinform reports.

"(The situation) is serious in that a military incursion has taken place and that incursion has reached the stage that it is not that distant from a nuclear power station," Grossi said.

According to the report, Ukrainian troops remain in Russia's southern Kursk region after pouring over the border last month, but remain some 40 km (25 miles) from the facility.

Grossi visited the Kursk plant, made up of four reactors, last month and said it would be "extremely exposed" if it came under attack as the facility had no containment dome.

The IAEA, he said, had no plans to station observers permanently at the station - as it has at Ukraine's four plants, including the Zaporizhzhia station, seized by Russian forces in the early days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Grossi said the situation remained tense at Zaporizhzhia, where each side regularly accuses the other of planning to attack the station.

"My experts continue to report on military action near the station," he said.

Photo from the website gur.gov.ua