IAEA inspectors say they have found no evidence of mines being planted at Zaporizhzhya NPP
ZNPP in September 2022 (Photo:REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have found no evidence that Russia has planted mines at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on July 5, with reference to the agency's spokesperson.
"Inspectors from the IAEA have reported that they’ve seen no evidence of anti-personnel mines installed in the plant’s grounds that could endanger reactor safety," the report said.
The IAEA spokesman stated that inspectors at the facility continue to monitor the situation.
Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned that the Russian forces had placed objects resembling explosive devices on the roof of the third and fourth reactors of the plant.
The Russians could detonate them without damaging the power units to create a picture of "shelling" by Ukraine, the military warned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 22 that Russia was considering a scenario of a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant it had seized on March 4, 2022, and had "prepared everything for this."
As of July 5, the plant is operating normally, and the radiation background in Ukraine is within normal limits.
The cooling pond at the plant is also at a high-enough level, despite the draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir, which supplies the pond with water.
Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and its dam in the early hours of June 6, causing a massive flood downriver on the Dnipro, and causing the water level in the reservoir to drop dramatically in just a few days.
The destruction of the dam has the potential to cause a huge amount of environmental and economic damage to southern Ukraine, experts say, including a lowering of groundwater levels, leading to a shortage of water for drinking and for crops.
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