UN monitor says Russia recognizes it would be unsafe now to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

By STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN
Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog says Russia may eventually restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant that it seized in southeastern Ukraine but shares the view of international monitors that it’s not practical and possibly dangerous to do so now. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said he gained an understanding of Russia’s position during a meeting last week in Kaliningrad with Alexey Likhachev, the director-general of the Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom. Grossi told reporters at a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors in Vienna that Russia does “have the intention of using this plant” but that Moscow also recognizes “that at the moment this would be not practical and perhaps even dangerous.”