IAEA chief may visit Kursk nuclear power plant early next week

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi may visit the Kursk nuclear power plant (NPP) in southwestern Russia early next week, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said, TASS reports. "The IAEA director general has publicly stated his intentions to visit the Kursk NPP next week. I presume that the visit is more likely to take place early next week rather than in the weekend," the Russian diplomat wrote on Telegram. Earlier, the Russian foreign ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Grossi’s visit to the Kursk nuclear power plant in late August was in the works. Grossi had a phone conversation with the CEO of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, on August 17. It was their second conversation this month, with the first one taking place on August 9. Following the discussions, Likhachev invited Grossi to visit the Kursk NPP and the adjacent town of Kurchatov as soon as possible to see for himself the situation around the nuclear facility. Grossi accepted the invitation. On August 9, Russia notified the IAEA about the situation around the Kursk NPP amid Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s borderline Kursk Region. It said that fragments of downed missiles had been reportedly found in the facility’s territory.