#Rafael Grossi

[stop-war-ukraine]

Russian drone attacked an IAEA vehicle on its way to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi condemned the act, calling it “unacceptable.”

[head-post]

IAEA head arrived in Russian city of Kaliningrad

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi arrived in Kaliningrad to discuss the situation at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Grossi arrived in the Russian city on Tuesday, May 28, to meet with a Russian interdepartmental delegation. The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) stated that its CEO Alexey Likhachev chaired the Russian delegation at the meeting, which began at the VIP lounge of Kaliningrad’s Khrabrovo airport.

Over the past year and a half, the head of the UN nuclear service has visited Russia several times. The meetings took place in Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Sochi.

In March, Grossi visited Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the conversation, the IAEA chief called for maximum military restraint around the nuclear power plant. They also discussed broader co-operation between Russia and the IAEA.

Zaporizhzhia NPP is the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest plants in the world. It came under Russian control in March 2022, shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February of the same year.

Since then, fears of nuclear disaster persist as both sides of the conflict accuse each other of shelling near the plant. Russian media reported an attack by Ukrainian kamikaze drones on the plant’s transport workshop on May 22. In April, Russia accused Kyiv of attacking the reactor building.

Read more HERE

[channeledhistory]

[nationnow]

Iran to 'dramatically' increase uranium stockpile sparking nuclear WW3 fears

Iran is slated to “dramatically” increase its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium, a nuclear watchdog warned Friday. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran began accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, which is close to the roughly 90% level considered weapons grade, that day. Grossi told Reuters: “I think it is very concerning.” Grossi’s…

[industrybuzz]

Kakhovka Reservoir Being Drained

Russia Drains Kakhovka Reservoir

The Kakhovka Reservoir in Ukraine is draining at an alarming rate, and it may be a deliberate Russian tactic to cause a nuclear disaster. The Kakhovka Reservoir is an immense man-made lake (approximately the size of the Great Salt Lake) in southern Ukraine, currently in Russian-occupied territory. It’s one of a series of reservoirs along the Dnipro River, and supplies drinking and irrigation…

[suratan-zir]

Russia spreads lies that tonight Ukrainian Armed Forces are going to strike ZNPP with a "missiles filled with radioactive waste". You know what it means. If they started a campaign of misinformation and blame shifting, they are planning to blow up the nuclear plant sometime soon.

And I know for sure that, as in the case of the Nova Kakhovka dam Russians blew up, there will be many people willing to believe that Ukraine is deliberately destroying its own territory and kiling its people. Tucker Carlson will make another video where he explains how Ukraine is killing itself, "independent" Western journalists will write about this crime as a "catastrophe in which both sides blame each other", like nothing's clear, maybe Ukraine really nuked itself, who the fuck knows.

Rafael Grossi (the head of the The International Atomic Energy Agency) will once again gladly shake hands with the Russian terrorists who seized the NPP and are storing explosives there (I love how we all sorta forgot how fucking insane it is that russia is allowed to do this), while other IAEA employees will once again give the occupiers warm hugs.

The only hope is that something will happen behind closed doors that will force Kremlin to change their plans. Maybe they are bluffing like they did last year with the "dirty bomb" nonsense. One can hope.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Ukrainians who stayed on to work at the plant say they did so under duress. Employees report that Russian occupiers coerced them into adopting Russian citizenship and signing contracts with Rosatom. According to a recent IAEA report, the plant has announced that workers still officially employed by Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, are barred from the site. The workforce “now consists of former Energoatom employees who have adopted Russian citizenship and signed employment contracts with the Russian operating entity, as well as staff who have been sent to the ZNPP from the Russian Federation.”

On top of that, current and former employees of the ZNPP, some of whom escaped past enemy lines, have said that Russia brutalized the plant’s dwindling workforce, resorting to torture to keep workers in line.They also report that Russia is violating international law by using the plant as a military staging ground, further increasing the risks to the facility. This claim has been supported by satellite evidence.

From the start of the war, Energoatom has objected to the occupation of the ZNPP, and raised alarms about the dangers the plant faces. Recently, the IAEA has also issued warnings about the degrading state of the ZNPP and the continued potential for a meltdown. In February, it issued a bulletin warning that the plant’s last backup external power line had been disrupted, creating a “precarious” situation. Today, the IAEA’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, met with President Vladimir Putin and Alexei Likhachev, the head of Rosatom, in a closed-door session to discuss his concerns about the plant. But the agency has thus far been ineffectual in compelling Russia to cooperate, and its authority does not extend to claims of human-rights abuses away from the plant, even when they involve employees.

The result is a crisis unprecedented in the history of nuclear power. A disaster at the facility would be most immediately harmful to the people living near it. But the ZNPP is located in the watershed of the Dnipro River, which flows through southern Ukraine and into the Black Sea. If a meltdown occurs at the ZNPP and affects the waterways, experts indicate that all of southern Ukraine might be at risk for contamination.

...

In their stories of working at the ZNPP after the Russian occupation began, several sources describe incidents of detentions, interrogations, and torture. Kostiantyn Chebaievskyi worked at the ZNPP until August 2022, when he says he was arrested at the end of his shift and imprisoned by Russians. Chebaievskyi says that he was accused of communicating with Ukrainian authorities and that interrogators beat him and tried to force him to make a false confession. Other people employed at the ZNPP at the time say that cells intended to hold four to six people were used to detain up to 20 prisoners without any food, save what their relatives were able to bring on visits.

Chebaievskyi says that one form of torture involved what his captors called “a phone call to Lenin.” According to Chebaievskyi, the men would clip one cable to his earlobe and another to his finger, and then interrogate him while they turned the crank on a modified field telephone that would deliver a shock. “Everything goes dark,” he said. “All that you see is white lighting.” Chebaievskyi said that the interrogators repeated the procedure over and over, demanding to know his supposed contact in Ukraine. He also reported that some prisoners were forced to give interviews for Russian television crews, reciting prewritten scripts that were complimentary toward Russia. Chebaievskyi was released after 18 days, and then managed to escape from the city.

Other ZNPP employees corroborate allegations of abuse and torture. Volodymyr Zhaivoronok is a 50-year-old former equipment operator who says he was imprisoned for 53 days, many of them in the same cell where Chebaievskyi ended up. Zhaivoronok says Russian personnel beat the prisoners, targeting their backs, necks, and shoulders. “One is bringing you into the room, and another six people come there,” Zhaivoronok told me and my colleagues at the Reckoning Project. “They come in with batons, pistols.” He recalled that the torture room was covered in blood, and prisoners were forced to clean it. Zhaivoronok said that during one of the sessions, his torturers shot him in the side with a rubber bullet.

...

ZNPP employees claimed in 2022 that their plant also became a shield [like Chernobyl]. They reported that they heard what they believed to be Russian mortar shells launched from within or near ZNPP territory, and also saw Russian military equipment in crucial locations of the plant, including turbine halls near reactors. This equipment included armored personnel carriers and trucks, tanks, anti-aircraft systems, and rocket launchers. These sources also stated that Russian soldiers—possibly hundreds of them—have been deployed to the plant, and have complete access to spaces designated for evacuation and sheltering. These claims were supported in a September 2023 report, commissioned by Greenpeace, that used satellite imagery to identify signs of military activity in the vicinity of the plant. An accident involving military equipment and ordnance could damage the systems needed to cool the reactors, and could lead to a leak of radioactive material.

The operation of Zaporizhzhia, like that of all nuclear-power plants, is subject to international law, and to regular inspections by the IAEA, a treaty organization that reports to the United Nations. Since the beginning of the occupation, the IAEA and its director general, Grossi, have made several visits to Ukraine and to the ZNPP in particular, and have offered ongoing assistance to the plant’s administrators. In May, Grossi told the UN Security Council that the situation at the ZNPP “continues to be extremely fragile and dangerous,” and noted that the plant did not have enough staff to maintain safety measures, even with the reactors shut down. Grossi added that there had been seven occasions since the occupation began when the plant lost off-site power and had to rely on diesel generators, “the last line of defence against a nuclear accident.” (The plant has since suffered another external power loss.) In that address, Grossi asked that Russia abide by certain principles in its operation of the plant, including refraining from using it for military weapon storage."

- Nataliya Gumenyuk, "Looming Disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," The Atlantic. March 6, 2024.

[arson-jellyfish69]

Hey everyone, in case you haven't heard Russia is planning to blow up the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia in a terrorist attack, which can place the whole continent of Europe in danger due to radiation, if not the entire planet. Please help spread awareness

Russia is trying to deny this information, claiming they won't do that, but a month back Ukraine claimed Russia had plans for a terrorist attack on a dam in Kakhovka, they denied the allegations and then the dam was blown up, killing and displacing thousands of Ukraine civilians and animals. I'm sorry to be bringing such a grim topic on my blog, but Please help spread awareness

[pettirosso1959]

Buone notizie dalla Germania! Ormai i responsabili delle industrie sono alla disperazione; prezzi dell'energia alle stelle causa mancanza di generazione rinnovabile e massicce importazioni dai Paesi di confine. Paesi di confine che, causa carenze determinate dalla potenza assorbita proprio dalla Germania, vedono la loro energia elettrica schizzare alle stelle. Un cane che si morde decisamente la coda e senza vie di uscita, mentre sembrano ancora adesso profetiche le espressioni di Rafael Mariano Grossi, leader della IAEA: "La Germania non potrà fare a meno del nucleare, diversamente conoscerà lo spopolamento industriale". Intanto la società tedesca, il popolo, è in rivolta per i costi insostenibili dell'energia elettrica. Energiewende? Wendefumo...

Dal 2 all'8 novembre e dal 10 dicembre al 13 dicembre, l'approvvigionamento elettrico della Germania da energie rinnovabili è crollato a causa di una tipica situazione climatica invernale con una pausa del vento e un irraggiamento solare minimo che ha portato a carenze di approvvigionamento, elevate importazioni di elettricità e prezzi dell'elettricità alle stelle.

A volte, è stato necessario importare oltre 20.000 MW (20 GWe, pari a 20 reattori nucleari di medio-elevata potenza), più di un quarto del fabbisogno elettrico della Germania. I prezzi dell'elettricità sono aumentati di dieci volte (93,6 €ct/kWh).

https://t32b8e15b.emailsys1a.net/c/200/7972759/1101/0/11169274/5390/530680/08d47d514b.html

Le aziende che non avevano contratti a lungo termine hanno dovuto cessare la produzione. Wolfgang Große Entrup, amministratore delegato dell'Associazione tedesca dell'industria chimica (VCI): "È una situazione disperata. Le nostre aziende e il nostro paese non possono permettersi una produzione in condizioni di solo bel tempo. Abbiamo urgente bisogno di centrali elettriche che possano intervenire ed operare in sicurezza".

l motivo: il governo di coalizione a guida socialista/verde e i precedenti governi Merkel avevano dismesso 19 centrali nucleari (il 30% della domanda di elettricità della Germania) e 15 centrali a carbone sono state disconnesse dalla rete solo il 1° aprile 2023. Sono 4,35 miliardi di euro di denaro dei contribuenti in premi di disattivazione sono stati distribuiti a RWE e LEAG (Germania dell'Est): il danno e la beffa!

Nel gennaio 2025, la centrale elettrica Weisweiler di RWE andrà offline. Questo, tra tutti i mesi, avverrà a gennaio, quando il consumo di elettricità in Germania è al massimo e la Francia potrebbe avere poco da fornire.

Questo perché la Francia è il paese più sensibile al calore in Europa e anche piccole fluttuazioni di temperatura possono avere un impatto sul consumo di elettricità a causa dell'uso diffuso di sistemi di riscaldamento elettrico. Anche e solo 1°Celsius in meno e il consumo in Francia aumenta di 2400 megawatt (2,4 GWe).

Ma la politica energetica, sbagliata, della Germania, che prevede di spegnere l'energia elettrica di sicurezza (il back-up a carbone e le centrali turbogas "di scorta"), sta ora causando difficoltà economiche a tutti.

La Norvegia meridionale, la Svezia meridionale, l'Austria e i Paesi Bassi hanno registrato prezzi dell'elettricità altrettanto alti come quelli della Germania durante la stasi della generazione delle fonti rinnovabili.

Anche la Danimarca, il cui approvvigionamento di energia elettrica si basa sull'energia eolica (56%), ha esacerbato il malessere importando elettricità dalla Scandinavia.

Il ministro dell'Energia norvegese nel governo di centro-sinistra, Terja Aasland, vuole tagliare il cavo elettrico verso la Danimarca e rinegoziare i contratti elettrici con la Germania. Sta quindi rispondendo alle richieste del Partito del Progresso, di destra, che lo chiede da molto tempo e probabilmente vincerà le prossime elezioni. Secondo il Partito del Progresso, "l'infezione dei prezzi" dal sud deve essere fermata e il prima possibile.

Il ministro svedese dell'Energia Ebba Busch è stato ancora più chiaro: "È difficile per un'economia industriale fare affidamento sulla benevolenza degli dei del tempo per la sua prosperità".

E direttamente alla politica verde di Habeck: "Nessuna volontà politica è abbastanza forte da scavalcare le leggi della fisica, nemmeno quella del signor Habeck".

https://t32b8e15b.emailsys1a.net/c/200/7972759/1101/0/11169274/5390/530709/a3eea7ba77.html

Spesso si dimentica anche che le turbine eoliche consumano elettricità quando sono ferme o spente per motivi atmosferici. Questo perché tutti le componenti tecniche (pompe dell'olio, ventole di raffreddamento, sistemi di controllo e di riscaldamento del lubrificante, ecc.) devono rimanere in funzione anche quando le turbine non generano energia. Vestas specifica un consumo di energia elettrica di 55.000 kWh (o 55 MWh) all'anno per una turbina da 4,2 MW a veicolo fermo.

https://t32b8e15b.emailsys1a.net/c/200/7972759/1101/0/11169274/5390/530749/be86328178.html

Durante i periodi di produzione, la turbina si rifornisce di energia elettrica dalla sua stessa generazione, ma le turbine sono praticamente inattive 120 giorni all'anno.

Se ipotizziamo un autoconsumo medio di 40.000 kWh (o 40 MWh) all'anno per tutte le turbine tedesche, arriviamo a 1,2 TWh, la generazione di una centrale elettrica a gas di medie dimensioni.

Per esemplificare le conseguenze della mancanza di funzionamento e generazione delle turbine eoliche, si dovrebbe mantenere operativa una centrale elettrica di circa 400 MWe, o la stessa potenza dovrebbe essere importata per giorni e giorni, per evitare che le turbine eoliche si guastino causa freddo/caldo ambientale!

https://klimanachrichten.de/2024/12/20/fritz-vahrenholt-findet-die-gescheiterte-energiepolitik-nach-den-wahlen-ihre-fortsetzung/

Fernando Arnò.

[dragoneyes618]

On Wednesday, hikers around the southern Israeli city of Arad discovered the remains of an Iranian ballistic missile from the April 13 overnight assault. Israel’s Channel 11 identified it as a Khader-1 missile. The Khader-1, like the Imad missiles, which Iran also used in its strike, are nuclear capable.

The fact that Iran used two ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads should sound every alarm bell. In an interview with Deutsche Welle on Tuesday, International Atomic Energy Agency chairman Rafael Grossi said that Iran is “weeks rather than months” away from having enough enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb.

Israel’s war is not a war of choice. It isn’t a conflict that Israel can shrug its shoulders and walk away from, or opt for a limited goal of blocking incoming strikes. This is a war for national survival. Hamas made clear the genocide it aims to achieve on Oct. 7. Its appalling cruelty to the hostages it has held captive for more than six months demonstrates still further that there is no way to fight to a draw with this jihadist terror regime. There is no “deal” to be had with Hamas leaders. The same is true of Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. And, of course, the same is true of Iran.

Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and their terror partners have used all the resources at their disposal to expand their capacity to annihilate Israel. They have not done this to jockey for stronger negotiating positions. They are putting everything they have into building these capacities because they really want to destroy Israel and kill the Jews. The calls for Israel’s destruction are not mere slogans. They are solid commitments.

The good news is that Israel has the military and economic power to defeat its enemies completely. The bad news is that in their efforts, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and their other partners are not fighting alone. While the United States and other Western nations are willing to speak out against Hamas and Iran from time to time, they completely oppose Israel’s effort to defeat its enemies. Israel is permitted to defend against incoming attacks. But it is prohibited from taking decisive offensive action.

To block Israel from winning, the United States and its partners in Europe and the United Nations are waging an unprecedented, comprehensive and ever-escalating political war against Israel. Its clear goal is to criminalize Israel’s war effort and to effectively deny the Jewish state the right to self-defense.

Consider the news from the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Israel is not a member of the ICC. But to seize jurisdiction over Israel, the ICC took the legally dubious step of accepting “Palestine” as a member state. Since Oct. 7, the Palestinian Authority has deluged the ICC with war crimes complaints against Israel, even though they lack evidentiary basis. But they are supported politically by a slew of anti-Israel NGOs, and the U.N.’s institutionally anti-Semitic governing apparatus and agencies.

Early this week, rumors began to swirl that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan is poised to act on these groundless complaints and issue international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. If Khan proceeds as reported, Israel’s top leaders will be unable to visit any of the ICC’s 120 member nations without first securing bilateral agreements with authorities in each country not to arrest them during their stay.

This is terrible in and of itself, of course. But the wider implication is even more dire. If Khan goes through with his plan, he will essentially declare Israel a criminal state with no right to self-defense.

Given that Israel is in the midst of a terrible war for its national survival, by denying Israel the right to self-defense, the ICC will deny Israel the right to continue to exist. Moreover, the ICC will have made it the position of the international community that the Jewish state must be destroyed.

The United States is not a member of the ICC. All the same, Khan owes his election to the support he received from Washington. To repay the favor, Khan closed two ICC investigations into alleged U.S. war crimes related to the American war in Afghanistan shortly after he assumed office.

On Tuesday, Israel’s top political reporter, Amit Segal, revealed that “very senior officials” at the ICC told him that Khan’s initiative was given a “green light” by the Biden administration.

“There is no way the chief prosecutor would decide on such a dramatic step, in a war still ongoing—with very little evidence—without first getting at least a ‘green light’ from the Americans,” Segal cited his sources as saying.

If their allegation is true, Segal noted, then “this is yet another unprecedented low in relations between Israel and the United States at a very sensitive time on the eve of the ground operation in Rafah.”

Listing Israel as a major human-rights abuser

Rafah is the heart of the story. For months, it has been clear that the key to Israel’s victory in its war against Hamas is the seizure of Rafah, Hamas’s final outpost, strategically located along the border with Egypt.

For months, U.S. President Joe Biden and his top officials have done everything to block Israel from seizing the city. They insisted that Israel was responsible for the welfare of the 1.4 million Gazans in the city and that Israel had to evacuate them. They also prohibited Israel from opening the border with Egypt to permit Palestinians to leave Gaza and seek safety in third countries.

Rather than argue, Israel purchased tens of thousands of tents and has set them up for the Gazans leaving Rafah in a safe area.

As the clock ticks down to the operation, the United States has ratcheted up its slanderous claims against Israel. USAID administrator Samantha Power accused Israel of deliberately inducing a “famine in northern Gaza.” The United States made resupplying Gaza its primary war effort. Never mind that Gaza may be the best-stocked enclave on earth with aid packages selling for pennies in open markets. On Monday, Biden announced that America is providing $1 billion to Gaza and pointed an accusatory finger at Israel.

“We’re going to immediately secure that aid, and surge it, surge it, including food, medical supplies, clean water. And Israel must make sure this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay,” Biden barked.

The massive quantities of supplies entering Gaza daily have enabled Hamas to ready itself for the coming battle and to restore its control over all aspects of civilian life in the area. It has also enabled Hamas cells to quickly reinstate themselves in areas that IDF forces vacate, forcing soldiers to retake areas time after time.

Ahead of the news of the ICC initiative, the U.S. State Department informed the media of its intention to sanction an entire IDF unit, manned by soldiers on the ultra-Orthodox spectrum. The State Department also expanded U.S. sanctions against Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria to include organizations and individuals fingered by anti-Israel NGOs in the United States and the Palestinian Authority that seek to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.

This week, the State Department issued its annual Human Rights Report for 2023. The report places Israel together with Russia, China and the Taliban as major human-rights abusers. The State Department’s assault on Israel flies in the face of in-depth reports from U.S. and British military experts that have detailed how Israel has gone to lengths to prevent civilian deaths that are unprecedented in the history of warfare. The ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in Gaza is at most 1.3:1, the lowest in history, they have shown.

Like the threat of ICC arrest warrants, all of these shockingly hostile U.S. actions are directed towards the goal of criminalizing Israel’s war effort and intimidating Israel’s leaders into canceling the operation in Rafah, suing for a hostage deal that will lead to Israel’s strategic defeat and securing Hamas’s survival and Iran’s strategic victory and emergence as the uncontested regional hegemon—on the cusp of a nuclear arsenal.

‘More has to be done’ to fight antisemitism

The administration-directed onslaught is buffeted by the anti-Jewish, pro-Hamas pogroms at campuses from coast to coast. The symbiotic relationship between the vilification of Israel by the U.S.-led international community in support of Hamas’s survival and Israel’s defeat, coupled with the assault on Jews at universities, is forcing a choice on us all. A video address on Wednesday drew the link explicitly.

Noting that many leading universities have enabled the antisemitic violence on their campuses, Netanyahu said “more has to be done,” to fight antisemitism.

“It has to be done not only because they attack Israel. That’s bad enough. Not only because they want to kill Jews wherever they are. That’s bad enough. It’s also … because they say not only ‘Death to the Jews,’ but ‘Death to America.’ And this tells us that there is an anti-Semitic surge here that has terrible consequences.

Explaining the connection between events in the war on the ground and assaults on Jewish students and faculty, Netanyahu said: “We see this exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies as Israel tries to defend itself against genocidal terrorists. Genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians. Yet it is Israel that is falsely accused of genocide. Israel that is falsely accused of starvation and sundry war crimes. It’s all one big libel. But that’s not new.

“We’ve seen in history that antisemitic attacks were always preceded by vilification and slander; lies that were cast against the Jewish people that were unbelievable. Yet people believed them.

“And what is important now is for all of us, all of us who … cherish our values and our civilization to stand up together and to say: Enough is enough.

“We have to stop antisemitism because antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. It always precedes larger conflagrations that engulf the entire world. So I ask all of you, Jews and non-Jews alike who are concerned with our common values and our common future to do one thing: Stand up. Speak up. Be counted.”

Israel’s choice is between defeating its enemies on the battlefield even at the cost of terrible condemnation and isolation or collapsing under pressure and losing. Israel is called to make this choice in the immediate term, and its fate stands or falls with its decision about Rafah.

But while the focus is on Israel, the choice belongs to all who seek to preserve their freedom and safety. Will you stand with Israel, and by doing so, protect your own freedom and rights, or will you sacrifice both by staying silent?

[mariacallous]

Meduza: ZNPP in danger again: Since August 2022, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has suffered eight events with a complete loss of off-site power, until today, when the station lost the connection to its only remaining back-up power line amid renewed military activity in the area, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. “Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has lost a key source of the electricity it needs to cool its reactors as well as for other essential nuclear safety and security functions,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned.

[andrewtheprophet]

Russia Bars Ukrainian Operators From Zaporizhzhia: Jeremiah 12

March 2024By Kelsey Davenport The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised concerns that Russia’s decision to cut staff at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is compromising nuclear safety and security. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited the facility on Feb. 7, a week after Russia announced that workers employed by Energoatom, the…

[anchesetuttinoino]

Grossi: la situazione nella centrale nucleare di Kursk è "seria"

L'azione militare in corso nelle vicinanze della centrale nucleare russa di Kursk comporta il rischio di un “incidente nucleare”, lo ha dichiarato martedì ai giornalisti Rafael Grossi, direttore generale dell'Agenzia internazionale per l'energia atomica (AIEA).

L'alto funzionario ha visitato lunedì l'impianto situato nella città di Kurchatov, nella regione di Kursk, vicino al luogo in cui Kiev ha lanciato un'incursione su larga scala all'inizio del mese. I funzionari russi hanno in precedenza accusato le truppe ucraine di aver preso di mira l'impianto con dei droni, uno dei quali sarebbe caduto la settimana scorsa vicino al deposito di combustibile esaurito dell'impianto.

Grossi ha ribadito che la centrale nucleare di Kursk è di vecchia concezione e non include alcune delle protezioni di cui sarebbe dotato un impianto nucleare più moderno. Per esempio, non ha le cupole che proteggono i quattro reattori in caso di incidente grave, come l'impatto di un aereo.

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[head-post]

IAEA: Zaporizhzhia NPP allowed dismantling of impacted plant

The management of Zaporizhzhia NPP has allowed the possible dismantling of the affected cooling tower, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

The agency said in a statement that the ZNPP administration said it was necessary to “assess the impact of the fire on the structural integrity of cooling tower 1 and that it may be necessary to dismantle it.”

The agency specified that experts intend to gain access to the second of two cooling towers at the plant to inspect the structure and determine materials and specifications that may have been present in cooling tower 1 prior to the fire.

On Monday, IAEA representatives visited the damaged ZNPP cooling tower, which was damaged by the fire, for the second time. The first time, inspectors found no tyre residue or drones during their inspection. The agency considered it unlikely that the fire at the ZNPP cooling tower started at its base.

During the inspection and immediately after requesting access to cooling tower 2, the ISAMZ team was promptly escorted back to safety due to an air alert.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said:

“Obtaining access to the water nozzle distribution level would be important for the team to obtain a better understanding of the events and other relevant circumstances. The Agency will continue to request this as part of our role to monitor compliance with the five concrete principles for the protection of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.”

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant suffered on Sunday evening its first major damage since the conflict in Ukraine began. The station was attacked by some impact drone, resulting in a fire at the cooling systems facility.

The IAEA has been evasive about whose drone it could be. Given that the plant has long been under Russian control and the entire Zaporizhzhia region is constitutionally part of Russia, it is at least odd that Moscow would strike its own territory and facility.

Read more HERE

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up March 9, 2023

Under the cut:

Russia launched six hypersonic missiles able to evade air defences in the early hours of Thursday morning as it unleashed its largest missile barrage against Ukraine in three weeks. Critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions had been hit, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said. At least six people were killed in a missile strike on a residential area in the western Lviv region, 440 miles (700km) from the frontline, according to emergency services. Three buildings were destroyed by fire after the strike and rescue workers were combing through rubble looking for more possible victims. For much of Thursday the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – was forced to rely on diesel-powered generators after Ukrainian authorities said missile attacks had damaged power lines.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine was reconnected to Ukraine’s energy grid on Thursday, Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday the barrage of missile strikes launched on Ukraine overnight was retaliation for what the ministry called "terrorist actions" organized by Kyiv in Russia's Bryansk region last week.

Poland will transfer a limited number of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, according to Paweł Szrot, the head of the Polish president's office. "As far as I know, it will not be a large number of aircraft," Szrot said, as quoted by the Polish Press Agency. "The number will certainly not correspond to the number of (transferred) tanks."

“Russia launched six hypersonic missiles able to evade air defences in the early hours of Thursday morning as it unleashed its largest missile barrage against Ukraine in three weeks.

Critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions had been hit, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said. At least six people were killed in a missile strike on a residential area in the western Lviv region, 440 miles (700km) from the frontline, according to emergency services. Three buildings were destroyed by fire after the strike and rescue workers were combing through rubble looking for more possible victims.

“The occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done,” Zelenskiy said in a statement.

In the capital, Kyiv, the seven-hour alert through the night was the longest of Russia’s five-month air campaign.

Ukrainian officials said Moscow had fired six of its Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, an unprecedented number, which Ukraine has no way of shooting down. Russia is believed to have only a few dozen of the missiles, which the president, Vladimir Putin, regularly touts in speeches as a weapon for which Nato has no answer.

For much of Thursday the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – was forced to rely on diesel-powered generators after Ukrainian authorities said missile attacks had damaged power lines. The plant, which Russia has held since capturing it early in the war, is near the frontline and both sides have warned of a potential for nuclear accidents there caused by fighting.

The power grid operator Ukrenergo said in the afternoon that the power supply had been restored and the plant was switching away from generators. Russian-installed officials called the temporary cutoff a Ukrainian provocation.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, urged again for a protection zone around the plant. “Each time we are rolling a dice. And if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out,” he told the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors.

Ukraine’s air force said the attack comprised, in total, “81 missiles of various types”, launched from Russian aircraft and carriers in the Black Sea. Defence forces destroyed 34 cruise missiles and four drones, it added.

“Unfortunately, a missile of the Kinzhal type hit an infrastructure object,” said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv region’s military administration.

The military administration said 40% of people in the capital were without heating on Thursday morning. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said explosions were reported in the Holosiivskyi district, and two people were wounded in the Sviatoshynskyi district. Smoke could be seen rising from a facility in Holosiivskyi and police cordoned off all roads leading to it.

The governor of Odesa region said a mass missile attack hit an energy facility in the port city, cutting power. Residential areas were also struck.

Kharkiv was left without electricity as a result of the overnight attack, according to Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster. The regional governor, Oleh Synyehubov, said the city and region had been hit by 15 strikes, with targets including infrastructure.

Synyehubov said two women in their 70s were injured in Pisochyn and an agricultural facility was damaged in Slobozhanske. Multiple settlements were shelled on Wednesday, damaging houses and commercial buildings, he added.

Other blasts were reported in the central city of Dnipro and regions throughout Ukraine.”-via The Guardian

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“The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine was reconnected to Ukraine’s energy grid on Thursday, Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said.

Reuters reports that the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom had said earlier on Thursday that power to the Russian-occupied plant was lost during Russian air strikes.”-via The Guardian

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“The Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday the barrage of missile strikes launched on Ukraine overnight was retaliation for what the ministry called "terrorist actions" organized by Kyiv in Russia's Bryansk region last week.

"High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine's military infrastructure, military-industrial complex enterprises, as well as energy facilities that serve them," the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement.

It claimed that the target was reached and "all assigned objects have been hit."

"Unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, the transfer of reserves and railway transportation of foreign weapons was disrupted, and production facilities for the repair of military equipment and the production of ammunition were disabled," the ministry said in the statement.

Ukrainian authorities said Russia fired 81 missiles into multiple Ukrainian regions, including the nation’s capital overnight into Thursday. At least 11 people were killed across Ukraine in the strikes, according to regional authorities.

Here's what happened in Bryansk: Russian security officials claimed a small Ukrainian armed group had crossed the Russian border last week into the southern Bryansk region. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said the agency was carrying out operations following “armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a "terrorist attack." A local official said two civilians were killed.

An adviser in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the alleged raid was either a Russian provocation or the work of local partisans taking a stand against the Kremlin, denying any Ukrainian involvement.

CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims, and local media have not carried any images of the supposed incidents, any type of confrontation or an alleged raid reported by Russian authorities.

Ukraine rejects Russia's narrative: Kyiv responded dismissively to Moscow's claim the overnight assault on "peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine" was retaliatory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a statement likening the Kremlin's narrative to Nazi propaganda that sought to justify attacks on British civilians during WWII.”-via CNN

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“Poland will transfer a limited number of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, according to Paweł Szrot, the head of the Polish president's office.

"As far as I know, it will not be a large number of aircraft," Szrot said, as quoted by the Polish Press Agency. "The number will certainly not correspond to the number of (transferred) tanks."

However, Szrot added that the transfer of tanks would be part of an international coalition so that Ukraine could "feel" this support.

Slovakia's Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad also confirmed on March 9 that his country was prepared to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in a joint effort with Poland.

Nad told the Associated Press on March 1 that his country was considering transferring 10 of its 11 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, with the last one going to a museum.

"I think it's time to make a decision. People in Ukraine are dying," Nad wrote, adding that it was "inhumane and irresponsible" to politicize the war.”-via Kyiv Independent