Reuters. The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday (September 4) a cooling tower at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had been badly damaged in a fire last month and would probably have to be demolished.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made the comment during his fifth visit to the plant. Moscow and Kyiv have regularly accused each other of attacking the plant and risking a nuclear accident.
Grossi posted a video on social media platform X showing him and IAEA officials assessing the damage while standing inside the cooling tower.
"Until today, we hadn't been able to get to this point, high up in the tower, so we can assess in a much better way the damage that occurred," Grossi, wearing a helmet and bullet-proof vest, said in the video. "This big structure is not usable in the future, so it will probably be demolished at some point."
Fire broke out in the tower on August 11, with Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of actions that triggered the blaze.
