IAEA calming statement on the Zaporizhzhia #nuclear power plant smoke yesterday:
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) witnessed thick dark smoke coming from the north-western area of the plant, after hearing multiple explosions throughout the evening. The team was informed that an alleged drone attack on one of the plant’s cooling towers took place today. There is no impact on nuclear safety, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi confirmed.
A bit of a context: it must be remembered that the IAEA mission in #Energodar - just as was the #OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in #Donbas - are as needed by the Russian military administration as a thorn in the ass. They are there exclusively as a result of the IAEA’s agreement with Moscow.
The peculiarity of IAEA communiqués, then, is that 100% of the information given to the public has to be agreed with Moscow and cannot contain any of its own conclusions or guesses, only what the observers have been told or allowed to see by the Russians. Unless the IAEA guys actually saw Russians bringing tyres to the tower and setting them on fire, IAEA can’t say anything to the effect or speculate about possible causes, even if it’s the only logical conclusion when a concrete and steel tower suddenly starts producing black smoke. And Russians make sure IAEA won’t see a shit.
This can be annoying, but be aware that these few IAEA people are the only observers the international community has in the entire area of armed conflict after #Russia kicked out the OSCE in 2022 (and stole their cars, by the way).
What is the value of observers that are prevented from seeing ~anything? Is it in them being able to see things that are too large to be hidden or something else?
@robryk
I think that’s it, precisely. The role of the observers is to ensure the lowest minimum denominator agreed between the parties which, in this case, is Moscow’s genuine unwillingness to cause a nuclear power plant disaster (because it would be in the first place disastrous for them). They agree to IAEA observers because Moscow also realizes that it can happen not only as result of an order from Kremlin but as a rogue action from some their local field commanders.