UNITED NATIONS -- The UN nuclear chief said Thursday he is sending inspectors to two locations in Ukraine where Russia alleged that activities related to the possible production of 鈥渄irty bombs鈥� was taking place and expects them to reach a conclusion 鈥渋n days 鈥� very fast.鈥�
Rafael Grossi said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would be travelling this week to the two sites, which are under IAEA safeguards, following a written request from the Ukrainian government.
Russia鈥檚 UN ambassador alleged in a letter to Security Council members this week that Ukraine鈥檚 Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Vostochniy Mining and Processing Plant 鈥渉ave received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy鈥檚 regime to develop such a dirty bomb.鈥�
The envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said that information was from Russia鈥檚 Ministry of Defence. He said the ministry reported that work on a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror, is 鈥渁t their concluding stage.鈥�
Grossi said: 鈥淭he purpose of this week鈥檚 safeguards visits is to detect any possible undeclared nuclear activities and materials related to the development of `dirty bombs.鈥欌��
The IAEA inspected the nuclear research institute in Kyiv a month ago 鈥渁nd no undeclared nuclear activities or materials were found there,鈥� he said.
But Grossi said the inspectors are going to revisit the facility with a different aim.
Normally inspectors look for nuclear material such as enriched uranium, plutonium and thorium, he said, but in this case 鈥渢here is mention of certain isotopes, cesium and strontium. So, we are going to be performing a different kind of work to determine whether the fuel there has been reprocessed in some way to extract this.鈥�
Grossi came to UN headquarters in New York to brief Security Council members behind closed doors on nuclear issues related to Ukraine. The IAEA earlier issued a statement from him and he spoke to reporters after the council meeting.
Russia's Nebenzia said he told Grossi that 鈥渉e should be vigilant" because the two sites are not the only places where dirty bombs can be produced.
Grossi said he remains 鈥渆xtremely concerned鈥� about the possibility of a nuclear accident.
He said that in the coming weeks the IAEA is going to be deploying more experts at other nuclear power plants in Ukraine 鈥� Rivni, Khmelnytskyi South Ukraine and Chornobyl. The latter was the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, and it was occupied by Russian forces soon after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, though they left at the beginning of April.
The nuclear issue was heightened by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu鈥檚 unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a dirty bomb in weekend calls to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts. Britain, France and the United States rejected the claim out of hand, calling it 鈥渢ransparently false.鈥�
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated the unsubstantiated claim on Wednesday,
Ukraine dismissed Moscow鈥檚 claim as an attempt to distract attention from the Kremlin鈥檚 own alleged plans to detonate a dirty bomb.
Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country鈥檚 four nuclear power plants, said Russian troops have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russian officers controlling the area won鈥檛 give access to Ukrainian staff running the plant or monitors from the UN鈥檚 atomic energy watchdog that would allow them to see what the Russians are doing, Energoatom said in a statement Tuesday.
Grossi said in the statement that nuclear safety and security at Zaporizhzhia 鈥渞emains precarious鈥� and engineers have been working 鈥渢o stabilize the plant鈥檚 fragile external power supplies following repeated outages earlier this month that forced it to temporarily rely on its emergency diesel generators for electricity.鈥�
The IAEA chief said he made clear that he considers Zaporizhzhia 鈥渁 Ukrainian plant鈥� and expressed concern at possibe confusion about the chain of command following Russia鈥檚 announcement that it has taken control of the facility.
This 鈥渃ould negatively affect nuclear safety and security,鈥� Grossi's statement said, pointing to plans by senior Ukrainian operating staff to restart a reactor unit that remain on hold because Russian officials haven鈥檛 agreed.
Grossi reiterated that establishing a protection zone around Zaporizhzhia 鈥渞emains of paramount importance.鈥�
He said his consultations 鈥渁re making progress, although not as fast as I would like,鈥� pointing to the need for agreement on technical and other parameters of the zone.
鈥淚 hope to be able to do it in a matter of days if possible,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 will keep on pushing.鈥�
Zaporizhzhia has seen repeated shelling, which Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of carrying out.
