Rafael Grossi News

Iran temporarily closed its nuclear facilities over «security considerations» in the wake of its massive missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend, the head of the UN's atomic watchdog said Monday. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi was asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility in retaliation for the attack. «We are always concerned about this possibility. What I can tell you is that our inspectors in Iran were informed by the Iranian government that yesterday (Sunday), all the nuclear facilities that we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations,» he said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Cold War’s end promised relief from nuclear nightmares. Long-adversarial governments agreed to eliminate warheads and collaborated to stop the spread of atomic weapons.

Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of planning to attack a nuclear plant in the Kursk region that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's troops have entered and blame such a «provocation» on Moscow, Interfax news agency said. Kyiv denied that as «insane» propaganda. Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia's western Kursk region on Aug. 6 to try and swing the dynamics of the two-and-a-half year war in its favour after Moscow's 2022 invasion.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear station was struck by Ukraine on Sunday, the plant's Russian-installed administration said, according to Al Jazeera. It was not immediately clear what weapon was used in the strike on Sunday. The Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom, however, said that it was a drone attack at the nuclear plant, which was taken over by Russian forces shortly after their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The head of the U.N. atomic agency has observed firsthand the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s ongoing radioactive wastewater discharges for the first time since the contentious program began six months ago

South Korea's defense minister said, amid suspicions that the North may use it as a new source of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. Concerns about North Korea's nuclear program deepened recently as the UN atomic agency and foreign experts said they've detected signs indicating that North Korea had begun operating its light-water reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said last week that his agency had observed increased levels of activity at and near the reactor and since mid-October, a strong water outflow from its cooling system.

IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi on Monday arrived in India on an official visit. «A warm welcome to DG @iaeaorg @rafaelmgrossi as he arrives on his first visit to India as Director-General of IAEA. His visit will further strengthen India-IAEA ties across diverse sectors,» Ministry of External Affairs Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote on 'X'. The IAEA is a centre for cooperation in the nuclear field and seeks to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies, as per the IAEA's official website. Grossi assumed office as the IAEA's sixth Director General on December 3, 2019.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it has decided to end light-touch oversight of its nuclear activities by the U.N. atomic watchdog and switch to full-blown safeguards, a change the agency has been demanding for years. Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear programme that it wants to expand to eventually include activities like proliferation-sensitive uranium enrichment.

Experts from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog inspected two sites in Ukraine on Tuesday, following unfounded claims by Russia that Ukrainian authorities planned to let off a "dirty bomb". 

A UN inspection team arrived at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of waging attacks on Thursday near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, causing one of its reactors to shut down just as a team of UN inspectors were heading in for a visit.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned Thursday that "very alarming" military activity at Europe's largest nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine could lead to dangerous consequences for the region.