 "Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant")
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send permanent technical missions to all the nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Ukraine as part of stepped-up efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident amid Russia's ongoing war against Kiev.
This was agreed upon during a meeting in Paris on Tuesday between IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Grossi and Shmyhal also made progress in ongoing discussions about setting up a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), where the had IAEA deployed a permanent expert mission more than three months ago, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
"While we are not yet there and more work is required, I'm increasingly optimistic that such a zone, which is of paramount importance, will be agreed and implemented in the near future," the Director General was quoted as saying after the meeting.
"I will continue my high-level consultations in the coming days, both with Ukraine and Russia, with the clear aim to get this done as soon as possible. We can't afford to lose more time."
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At the request of Ukraine, the IAEA has over the past month dispatched week-long nuclear safety and security missions to the three other operational NPPs in Ukraine -- Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine -- as well as to Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear accident.
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