Fire at Zaporizhzhia NPP. IAEA experts unable to determine cause of incident.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has conducted an inspection of the cooling tower at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which caught fire last night, but has not yet been able to determine the cause of this incident. This was reported by the IAEA.

"According to the director Rafael Mariano Grossi, the analysis shows that it is least likely that the fire started near the base of the cooling tower," the IAEA statement said.

During the inspection, it was found that the damage is likely concentrated inside the tower at the level of the water distribution nozzle, which is located at a height of about 10 meters.

The IAEA expert team did not have access to the cold water pool for safety reasons. They noticed burnt areas of internal equipment and remnants of burned plastic and concrete fragments in the pool. This was reported by the agency.

The IAEA experts found no signs of damage to debris, ash, or soot near the base of the cooling tower. This indicates that nuclear safety at the station was not compromised, as the cooling towers are currently not in operation, and there are no radioactive substances in the cooling tower area, which is located approximately 1.5 km from the reactor blocks of the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

It is worth noting that experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency claim that they are currently unable to draw definitive conclusions about the cause of the fire and promise to continue the analysis after additional inspections and access levels.

Recall that a fire broke out in cooling tower number one at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and other technological equipment was also damaged. IAEA experts recorded heavy smoke rising from the northern part of the station after the explosions. According to the Zaporizhzhia NPP team, which is under the control of Russian occupiers, the fire occurred as a result of a drone attack on the cooling tower. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also confirmed this version of events.