No way to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at present, IAEA chief says

By Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) -Conditions for restarting Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant do not exist at present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply, the head of the UN's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv that water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently shut down, to restart.

The facility, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Grossi said the Russians had "never hidden the fact" that they want to restart the plant, but they would not be able to do so soon.

"We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done," Grossi said.

The IAEA chief added that the plant's machinery, which has not been operating for three years, would have to be thoroughly inspected before any restart.

Ukraine has said that an attempt by Russian technicians to restart the plant would be dangerous because they are not certified to operate the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Grossi said Russian nuclear staff were capable of conducting a restart, and that the issue of certification was a political rather than technical one.

Ukraine has also protested at the IAEA's monitoring mission to the plant accessing it via Russian-occupied territory.

Grossi said this was to protect the safety of his staff, and that at present he does not have the necessary guarantees from the Russian side to safely transit IAEA staff through the frontlines to Ukraine-controlled territory, as had been done several times before.

(Reporting by Max Hunder, Editing by William Maclean)