The agenda of the meeting includes nuclear and radiation safety issues and their implementation in Ukraine.
“It is significant that the IAEA Board of Governors meeting starts today. It was on 4 March two years ago that russia occupied the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – Zaporizhzhia NPP. The situation at the facility is deteriorating every day: nuclear fuel in all six power units of ZNPP is reaching the end of its lifetime, the russians are not allowing hundreds of qualified Ukrainian specialists to enter the plant, and equipment degradation continues. Every day of the russian presence at ZNPP can be fatal,” stressed Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko.
Ukraine insists on the earliest possible de-occupation of ZNPP and implementation by russia, which is a member state of the IAEA, of numerous resolutions of the organisation demanding immediate liberation of the occupied facility.
Ukraine won the right to become a member of the Board of Governors at the IAEA General Conference last September, the last time Ukraine was represented in this important institution being 13 years ago.
In addition to participating in the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, during his visit, German Galushchenko will meet with the Agency’s Director General Rafael Grossi, heads of EU delegations, and Energy Community Secretariat Director Artur Lorkowski.
The Minister of Energy is also scheduled to meet with the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology of Austria Leonore Gewessler, Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Karlheinz Kopf, President of the Federation of Austrian Industries Georg Knill and representatives of the Austrian business community.