Ukraine told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that it was continuing preparations for a rotation of technical staff who have been working at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) for the past two weeks, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. ?

Russian forces withdrew from the plant three days ago after being in control of the site for five weeks. During that time only one change of staff on duty took place, on 20-21 March. Many NPP personnel live in the city of Slavutych outside the 30-kilometre Exclusion Zone set up after the 1986 accident. Ukraine said the preparatory work for the next rotation included an assessment of staff security.

Out of the country’s operational reactors, Ukraine said seven were operating, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya NPP, three at Rivne, and two at South Ukraine. The other reactors are shut down for regular maintenance, including both units at the Khmelnytskyy NPP, or held in reserve.

In relation to safeguards, the Agency said that the situation remained unchanged from that reported previously. The Agency was still not receiving remote data transmission from its monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP, but such data was being transferred to IAEA headquarters from the other NPPs in Ukraine.