(3 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vienna, Austria – 3 June 2024
1. Wide of IAEA director general arriving for news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General:
“I think that the technical conversations allowed us to understand that they do have the intention of using this plant, but they do recognise – let’s say we coincide, or we have the same view, that at the moment this would be not practical and perhaps even dangerous. So that was the idea and the discussions in Kaliningrad.”
3. News conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General:
“They idea of course they have is to restart at some point. They are not planning to decommission this nuclear power plant. So this is what prompts the need to have a discussion about that.”
5. Wide of news conference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General:
“In terms of what needs to happen – well, the two things I mentioned first – I mean there shouldn’t be any bombing or any activity of this type. Then there should be a more stable assurance of external power supply. This requires repairs, important repairs on existing lines, which at the moment and because of the military activity are very difficult to envisage. And this also would require a number of safety assessments.”
7. News conference
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General:
“Iran and the Iranian authorities have always told me: we want to be treated as a normal country. Alright. And I’m telling them – that is possible. You have to work with us. We have to give, because the confidence is not there. This is obvious. Otherwise, we would not be discussing this for the past 20 years. And this is said with the utmost respect. I’m not offending anybody. The confidence is not there. So we have to create this confidence. The confidence comes when the agency can certify certain things.”
9. Wide of Grossi leaving
STORYLINE:
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday that Russia agreed with the body that it would not be "practical" and "even dangerous" to restart the Zaporizhizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said that Moscow was not "planning to decommission" the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.
The plant has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility shortly after.
The IAEA has frequently expressed alarm about the plant amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
Grossi said that military activities would have to cease and external power supply assured for the plant to resume operation.
"This requires repairs, important repairs on existing lines, which at the moment and because of the military activity are very difficult to envisage," Grossi said.
Grossi also said the agency did not have "confidence" in Iran as the two sides negotiate over how to implement a deal struck last year to expand inspections of the Islamic Republic’s rapidly advancing atomic program.
Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
AP video shot by Philipp Jenne
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