IAEA Head Says Tower At Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Station Requires Demolition After Fire

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visits the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in June 2023.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said a cooling tower at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya 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 on September 4 during a visit to the plant. "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 said in a video he posted on X, formerly Twitter. "This big structure is not usable in the future, so it will probably be demolished at some point."