The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said a cooling tower damaged in a fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will likely have to be demolished.
“This large structure will not be usable in the future and will probably be demolished at some point in the future,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday during a visit to the nuclear plant.
The cooling tower of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was damaged in a fire in August. Ukraine blames Russian occupiers for causing the fire, while the Russian-appointed management of the plant and the administration for the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region blamed a Ukrainian drone attack.
Grossi had previously said that the damage to the cooling tower does not compromise the safety of the six reactors currently inactive at the plant.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which Russia has occupied for nearly two and a half years following a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, has been the target of repeated attacks and sabotage, for which Moscow and Kiev blame each other.
