Ukraine has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that Russia plans to take full and permanent control of Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant under Rosatom management, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.
In a letter to the Director General, the President of Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, said that around 400 Russian soldiers were "present full time on site" and confirmed that the NPP remains under the control of the Russian military forces' commander.
In addition, Energoatom's Kotin said plant management were required to coordinate with the Russian forces on all operational issues, including technical matters.
He confirmed that staff at the NPP were regularly rotating and added that Russian experts had arrived at the site a few days ago to assess the radiation situation there.
Earlier, Ukraine informed IAEA that Russian military forces took over the country's largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors, on March 4.
"Its regular staff have continued to operate the NPP and carry out their day-to-day work, but its management is under the control of the commander of the Russian forces there, Ukraine said. Russian forces took control of another nuclear site in Ukraine, the Chornobyl NPP, on February 24," the statement read.
In a telephone call with Director General Grossi on Saturday, the Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev confirmed that a limited number of the company's experts were present at the Zaporizhzhya NPP in south-eastern Ukraine, but he denied that Rosatom had taken operational control nor that it intended for the plant to be under Rosatom's "management system", the IAEA statement read.
Earlier, Ukraine authorities have told IAEA that technicians have started repairing damaged power lines in an attempt to restore electricity supplies to the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that were entirely cut a few days ago.
Ukrainian authorities have reported that the repairing work began on the evening of March 10 and they had also repaired one section but off-site electrical power was still down, indicating there was still damage in other places. The repair efforts would continue despite the difficult situation outside the NPP site.
( With inputs from ANI )
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