The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that its experts had visited a damaged cooling tower at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine and found no remains of a drone.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant suffered on Sunday evening its first major damage since the conflict in Ukraine began. The station was attacked by some impact drone, resulting in a fire at the cooling systems facility.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement:
Based on the observations, the team assessed that it was unlikely that the primary source of the fire began at the base of the cooling tower.
According to Grossi, during a visit to the affected cooling tower, the team noticed charred areas on the internal equipment above, near the water nozzle distribution level.
Samples of debris, including burnt and melted plastic, were collected, he said, adding, “No tyres or drone remains were found during the inspection.”
The team confirmed there were no significant signs of disturbance from debris, ash or soot at the base of the cooling tower and the nuclear safety of the plant was not affected, he emphasised. Adding that the IAEA would continue the overall analysis after further inspection and access to the water nozzle distribution level and the cold water basin, Grossi said:
The team was unable to draw final conclusions based on the findings and observations.
The IAEA has been evasive about whose drone it could be. Given that the plant has long been under Russian control and the entire Zaporizhzhia region is constitutionally part of Russia, it is at least odd that Moscow would strike its own territory and facility.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the strikes on ZNPP by the AFU were atomic terrorism. He noted that Ukraine has long been using terrorist methods. For instance, the Kyiv authorities, according to him, tried to undermine the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.
