The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it will probably be necessary to demolish the cooling tower damaged in a fire at the Zaporozhye NPP occupied by Russian forces, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"This large structure cannot be used in the future, so it will probably be demolished at some point," said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi during a visit to the nuclear power plant yesterday.
The cooling tower of Europe's largest nuclear power plant was damaged in a fire in August. Ukraine blamed the Russian occupiers for causing the fire, while the Russian-appointed management of the plant and the administration of the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporozhye region, on the other hand, blamed the attack on a Ukrainian drone.
Grossi then said the cooling tower failure did not threaten the safety of the plant's six reactors, which are currently idle.
The "Zaporozhie" nuclear power plant, which Russian forces occupied nearly two and a half years ago at the beginning of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has repeatedly been the subject of attacks or sabotage, for which Moscow and Kiev have made mutual accusations, DPA notes.