UN inspectors at nuclear power plant in Ukraine admit they are ‘worried’ about ‘physical integrity’

On Sep 2, 2022

UN inspectors at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine have admitted that they are worried about the facility’s ‘physical integrity’ – while Putin‘s regime tries to trick IAEA officials on the ground.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said he expects to produce a report ‘early next week, as soon as we have the full picture of the situation by the end of the weekend, more or less.’

Speaking to reporters in Vienna after returning from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, he said he will brief the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

‘We’ve seen what I requested to see – everything I requested to see,’ Grossi said, adding that his big concerns were the plant’s ‘physical integrity,’ the power supply to the facility and the situation of the staff.

‘The military activity and operations are increasing in that part of the country, and this worries me a lot,’ he said. ‘It is obvious that the statistical possibility of more physical damage is present.’

He noted that shelling started in August and ‘it is quite clearly a more recent trend,’ but didn’t apportion blame for damage that has been done so far.

Speaking to reporters in Vienna after returning from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, he said he will brief the UN Security Council on Tuesday

Meanwhile, Renat Karchaa, a Russian nuclear expert, told the IAEA team that a rocket performed an ‘180-degree’ flip to land at the nuclear power plant

The head of Ukraine’s nuclear watchdog, Oleh Korikov, said Ukrainian officials ‘would like more decisive actions and statements’ from the IAEA inspectors. ‘But let’s wait until the mission is over,’ he added.

Local Russian-appointed authorities said Friday that staff at the plant restarted a key reactor just hours after shelling a day earlier forced it to shut down.

Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator, Energoatom confirmed on its Telegram channel that the reactivated reactor had been plugged back into the power grid.

Aleksandr Volga, the Kremlin-backed mayor of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhizhia plant is located, told the Interfax news agency that the facility now had two working reactors, out of a total of six.

The head of Ukraine’s powerful National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said Ukrainian authorities weren’t fully aware of the situation inside the plant for now – despite the presence of the IAEA team that went in Thursday.

Danilov – a key official in Ukraine’s war effort – said: ‘I want to emphasize that this is a challenge for the whole world, how to make this nuclear facility not dangerous.’

Meanwhile, Renat Karchaa, a Russian nuclear expert, told the IAEA team that a rocket performed an ‘180-degree’ flip to land at the nuclear power plant.

According to The Telegraph, he said: ‘It fled from here and this is the direction of Nikopol. It did a U-turn. In principle, it landed and spun around.’

He noted that shelling started in August and ‘it is quite clearly a more recent trend,’ but didn’t apportion blame for damage that has been done so far

Local Russian-appointed authorities said Friday that staff at the plant restarted a key reactor just hours after shelling a day earlier forced it to shut down

The plant has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the 6-month war

Russia and Ukraine traded blame for the shelling which led to Thursday’s temporary shutdown of the reactor by its emergency protection system.

Energoatom said the attack damaged a backup power supply line used for in-house needs, and one of the plant’s reactors that wasn’t operating was switched to diesel generators.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said earlier Friday that shelling continued in the area near the plant, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said Russian shelling damaged houses, gas pipelines and other infrastructure on the other bank of the Dnieper River – part of fighting in several areas of eastern and southern Ukraine overnight.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, a diplomat on the frontlines

With his dynamic manner and high-risk visit to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has been at the centre of recent coverage of Russia’s invasion.

After weeks of intensive negotiations to secure the visit, he set off for Zaporizhzhia early on Monday morning.

The photo he tweeted announcing his visit could have been a poster for an action film, with 61-year-old Grossi wearing a steely expression in front of serried ranks of IAEA experts.

The Zaporizhzhia site has been occupied by the Russians since early on in the conflict and fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been raised on several occasions by bombardments in the vicinity.

Despite fresh shelling in the area earlier this week, a flak-jacketed Grossi insisted that ‘we are not stopping’ with the visit.

‘Wish us luck,’ he told reporters at the plant, where he stayed for several hours.

The visit was criticised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said the IAEA had failed to push for the demilitarisation of the site and had not ensured access for independent media.

The Kremlin meanwhile called the visit ‘very positive’.

Grossi had previously ventured to Ukraine in March and then again a month later to go to Chernobyl, the scene of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe in 1986.

Grossi will be glad to have established a permanent IAEA presence on site, with two inspectors expected to stay on there.

‘Let the world know that the IAEA is staying at Zaporizhzhia,’ he said after the visit, adding that his team had ‘a lot more to do’ and would seek to provide impartial updates on the situation there.

Western diplomats have lauded Grossi for undertaking the mission.

‘He explores all avenues, it’s very brave and I’m not sure another IAEA director general would have done the same,’ a European source said.

Senior French diplomat Philippe Errera tweeted his praise for Grossi’s ‘perseverance’.

The American ambassador to international organisations in Vienna Laura Holgate said the US was ‘extremely grateful to DG Grossi and his team for their visit’, calling it ‘a critical step in addressing nuclear safety’ at the plant.

Kelsey Davenport from the Arms Control Association think-tank said that while ‘an on-site IAEA presence does not guarantee that a nuclear disaster will be averted… it should mitigate that risk and deescalate tensions’.

Davenport said the ‘IAEA is facing unprecedented challenges’ which constitute ‘a direct affront to the nuclear order’.

‘The agency needs leadership that will speak truth to power,’ she said, adding: ‘Grossi is proving to be that leader.’

One of Grossi’s current challenges is navigating the IAEA’s role in the supremely complex and sensitive Iranian nuclear dossier.

After Iran and world powers struck deal on the country’s nuclear programme in 2015, it fell to the IAEA to monitor Tehran’s compliance with the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear activity.

But since former US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018, it has been gradually disintegrating and Iran has progressively abandoned those restrictions, as well as curbing access for IAEA inspectors to sites and data.

Grossi has warned that the agency risks ‘flying blind’ in Iran, and has made several short-notice visits to Tehran to negotiate with senior Iranian officials.

While protracted diplomatic negotiations have been taking place to try to revive the 2015 accord, Iran has said an outstanding IAEA probe has to be concluded as part of the deal.

That investigation concerns the previous discovery of traces of enriched uranium at three sites not declared by Tehran.

Grossi has refused to back down, insisting that Iran has failed to adequately explain the presence of that material.

He has been head of the IAEA since 2019 and had previously served in high-ranking positions at the agency between 2010 and 2013.

The polyglot Argentinian father-of-eight is also rumoured to be in the running for the post of UN Secretary General when the incumbent Antonio Guterres’ term expires in 2026.

Asked about this at a conference in New York last month, Grossi replied that ‘my plate is full of terribly important matters – that is occupying my time and waking me up in the night, and this is all I care for’.

Russian-backed officials in Enerhodar claimed Russian forces had shot down an armed Ukrainian drone near the plant Friday.

‘Ukrainian militants, apparently, continue to try to attack the plant despite the fact that there are IAEA employees there,’ the press service of the municipal administration said in a statement.

In its regular update on Friday evening, the Ukrainian military said it had carried out a ‘precision strike’ in Enerhodar, but did not acknowledge or directly respond to the claims by Kremlin-backed officials.

It said the attack destroyed three artillery systems, an ammunition depot and a company of personnel.

Russia and Ukraine traded accusations that the other side was trying to impede the work of the IAEA experts, or control the message.

Zelenskyy, in his nightly address on Thursday, had tough words for the IAEA delegation. While applauding its arrival at the plant, he said independent journalists were kept from covering the visit, allowing Russians to present a one-sided, ‘futile tour.’

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow considered ‘positively’ the arrival of the mission, ‘despite all problems and difficulties caused by the Ukrainian side’s provocative actions.’

The 14-member delegation arrived in a convoy of SUVs and vans after months of negotiations to enable the experts to pass through the front lines. They braved gunfire and artillery blasts along the route.

Grossi said Friday that six of the agency’s experts remain at the plant, and there will be a ‘permanent presence on site with two of our experts who will be continuing the work.’ He wasn’t specific about how long exactly the two experts will stay.

‘The difference between being there and not being there is like day and night,’ he said.

The plant has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the 6-month war.

Grossi said there was a ‘professional modus vivendi’ at the site. He said it was ‘admirable for the Ukrainian experts to continue to work in these conditions.’

‘It’s not an easy situation; it’s a tense situation, it’s not an ideal situation, it’s a situation everybody is coping with,’ he said.

Ukraine alleges Russia is using the plant as a shield to launch attacks. On Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu rejected the Ukrainian allegations and said Russia has no heavy weapons either on the site or in nearby areas.

Shoigu said Ukrainian forces have fired 120 artillery shells and used 16 suicide drones to hit the plant, ‘raising a real threat of a nuclear catastrophe in Europe.’

Elsewhere in Ukraine on Friday, Zelenskyy’s office said four people were killed and 10 injured over the last day in the eastern Donetsk region, a key hub of the Russian invasion.

It comes as Europe’s efforts to secure enough power for winter were handed a fresh blow today after Gazprom scrapped its own deadline to resume gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline as Vladimir Putin continues to weaponise the flow of energy into the continent.

The Russian energy giant said on Friday that all natural gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 would remain cut off ‘indefinitely’ after an apparent oil leak within the main turbine at Portovaya compressor station was discovered.

No timeframe was given for the resumption of gas supplies into Europe, despite the fact flows were due to resume on Saturday following a three-day break for maintenance after Gazprom halted all supply on Wednesday.

Reduced deliveries via Nord Stream have left countries scrambling to refill storage tanks for winter and led to fears that Putin may ultimately determine whether or not the lights stay on in Europe amid the coldest months.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier warned there could be more disruption to deliveries via Nord Stream 1. He said the reliability of the entire system was ‘at risk’ and did not rule out further outages – a threat which could see energy prices soar further.

The news came hours after G7 leaders agreed to impose price caps on Russian oil in a bid to curtail Putin’s coffers as he continues to wage war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin immediately responded to say it would halt the sale of oil to any countries that imposed restrictions.

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas.

Europe imports about 40 per cent of its gas and 30 per cent of its oil from Russia, and Putin has already been accused of ‘energy blackmail’ by strangling the flow of natural gas into Germany via the Nord Stream supply.

The head of Germany’s network regulatory agency, Klaus Muller, tweeted that the Russian decision to keep Nord Stream 1 switched off for now increases the significance of new liquefied natural gas terminals that Germany plans to start running this winter, gas storage and a ‘significant need to save’ gas.

It is ‘good that Germany is now better prepared, but now it comes down to everyone,’ Mr Muller added.

The European Union has just reached its goal of filling its gas storage to 80%, ahead of a November 1 deadline, despite Russian supply cutbacks.

Gazprom has cut off its Nord Stream gas supplies as Vladimir Putin continues to pile the pressure on Europe by weaponising the flow of energy to the continent

The news came hours after G7 leaders agreed to impose price caps on Russian oil in a bid to curtail Putin’s coffers as he continues to wage war in Ukraine. The Kremlin immediately responded to say it would halt the sale of oil to any countries that imposed restrictions

Gazprom said on Friday that all natural gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 would remain cut off after an apparent oil leak within the main turbine at Portovaya compressor station, near St Petersburg, was discovered

Doomsday forecasts are now predicting hard-up Brits could fork out more than £104-a-week just to heat and power their homes from spring 2023

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Pictured: Nord Stream 1 in Lubmin, Germany

Gazprom said in its statement on Telegram that the oil leak detection report ‘was also signed by representatives of Siemens’. The energy giant warned a lack of spare parts threatened the site, and cited Siemens as saying that the necessary repairs could only be done in ‘the conditions of a specialised workshop’.

In a statement on Telegram, Gazprom provided what it said was a picture showing leaked oil on equipment at the compressor station – but German officials immediately cast doubt on their explanation.

‘There are no technical reserves, only one turbine is working,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. ‘So the reliability of the operation, of the whole system, is at risk,” he added.

Moscow has blamed sanctions for hampering routine operations and maintenance of Nord Stream 1. Brussels countered by saying this is a pretext and Russia is using gas as an economic weapon to rail against the West.

Siemens Energy, which maintains the turbine, has also rejected Putin’s blaming of economic sanctions and says there are no legal obstacles to its provision of maintenance for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

It comes days after Gazprom slashed its own supply into Germany for what it described as maintenance.

Entsog, the operator of Nord Stream 1, announced that gas delivered were halted shortly before 06.00GMT on Wednesday.

The three-day works at a compressor station were ‘necessary’, Gazprom said, adding that they had to be carried out after ‘every 1,000 hours of operation’.

Last month capacity was dropped to just 20 per cent of usual levels amid tensions between Russia and the West following the Ukraine war.

Europe has been on edge over soaring energy prices as Russia has dragged its feet and consistently curbed gas deliveries following of its invasion of Ukraine.

Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and other European nations had earlier accused Moscow of using energy as a ‘weapon’ before Gazprom choked off all supplies this week.

Gas is used to keep industry humming, generate electricity and heat homes in the winter, and concerns are rising about a possible recession if Europe does not save enough gas and rationing is ultimately required.

With winter round the corner, European consumers are staring down the barrel of huge bills to power and heat their home. Some countries like France have warned that rationing is a possibility.

‘We see that the electricity market does not work anymore because it is massively disrupted due to Putin’s manipulations,’ EU Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen said, adding that a gas price cap on Russian pipeline supplies could be proposed at the European level.

Earlier today, the ministers from the club of wealthy industrial democracies confirmed their commitment to the plan after a virtual meeting.

They said, however, that the per-barrel level of the price cap would be determined later ‘based on a range of technical inputs’ to be agreed by the coalition of countries implementing it.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would turn off supplies to Europe if Brussels imposed such a cap.

The G7 agreed to impose a Russian oil price cap on Friday to slash funding for Putin’s war in Ukraine, while keeping crude flowing to avoid price spikes. Pictured: A view shows the Alexander Zhagrin oilfield, operated by Gazprom Neft, on August 30, 2022

In a threat to the G7 nations, the Kremlin warned earlier on Friday that it would stop selling oil to countries that impose price caps on Russia’s energy resources, saying such a move would lead to significant destabilisation of the global oil market. Pictured: An oil rig in Russia

Putin warned the West this month that continued sanctions risked triggering catastrophic energy price rises for consumers around the world

The Group of Seven consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Pictured: The leaders of the G7 are seen meeting in June this year

Britain faces 22% inflation by January as energy giants are predicted to rake in £17BN EXTRA profits

Britain faces an inflation rate of 22 per cent this winter leaving millions unable to pay the bills and businesses going to the wall while energy firms are predicted to make £170billion extra in profits.

Goldman Sachs predicts inflation will double in 2023 as the price cap on energy bills continues to rise pushed up by soaring gas prices with the rising cost of food and a weak pound also contributing to the crisis that is sending the UK towards recession.

It came as leaked Treasury forecasts, published by Bloomberg, revealed the spiraling crisis will massively profit energy giants as oil and gas producers are predicted to make an extra £170billion as families face the choice between eating and heating this winter because of the cost of crisis catastrophe.

Pubs across the country that have been open for more than 200 years are closing their doors as their bills soar, with one heartbroken landlord admitting that they would have had to charge £14-a-pint and £40 for a main course to remain solvent.

The predictions of £170billion profits for energy firms will be delivered by Treasury officials to the next Prime Minister on September 6, putting pressure on them to impose another windfall tax to ease the energy crisis this winter.

A tax at the current windfall rate of 25 per cent would bring in billions of pounds for the Treasury to help give assistance to households through the cost of living crisis.

But the likely winner of the Conservative leadership contest Liz Truss has said repeatedly she is against new taxes and instead wants to cut tax in an effort to create economic growth.

Ms Truss has insisted that a windfall tax on energy giants massive profits would ‘send the wrong message to investors’.

In a warning about what she faces if she beats Rishi Sunak, one insider said today: ‘This makes Covid-19 look relatively straightforward’.

‘Today we confirm our joint political intention to finalise and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally,’ the G7 ministers said.

‘The provision of maritime transportation services, including insurance and finance, would be allowed only if the Russian oil cargoes are purchased at or below the price level ‘determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap.’

The ministers said they would seek a broader coalition of oil importing countries to purchase Russian crude and petroleum products only at or below the price cap, and will invite their input into the plan.

However, some G7 officials expressed concerns that the price cap would not be successful without participation of major importers such as China and India.

Energy regulator Ofgem announced last Friday its price cap would increase by 80 per cent to £3,549 per year in October.

But bills are predicted to rise again to £5,400 in January and even further to £6,600 in spring according to forecasts from energy analysts Cornwall Insight.

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I’ve been accused of catastrophising over this situation. Well, the reason I have catastrophised is this is a catastrophe, plain and simple.

‘If we do not get further government intervention on top of what was announced in May, lives will be lost this winter.’

The consumer champion also said the latest rise in the cap means some people will pay up to £10,000 a year in bills.

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned of the hardship energy prices will cause this winter and urged the incoming prime minister and new Cabinet ‘to provide an additional and urgent response to continued surging energy prices’.

He also said that the gas price this winter was 15 times more than the cost two years ago.

A tax at the current windfall rate of 25 per cent would bring in billions of pounds for the Treasury to help give assistance to households through the cost of living crisis.