IAEA wants to visit Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant by September 5

Nuclear inspectors will be given wider powers than initially sought to investigate attacks against a Russian-occupied atomic plant in Ukraine that has stoked international alarm over a potential nuclear-safety accident, Report informs via Bloomberg.

An impending International Atomic Energy Agency visit to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine will include security and safety authorities, in addition to the officials in charge of accounting for nuclear material at the site, according to two diplomats with knowledge of the visit who asked not to be identified in exchange for discussing the plans.

European intelligence officials say Russia is deliberately using the plant to shield its forces from Ukrainian attack and launching artillery strikes from nearby. Russia accuses Kyiv of shelling that has targeted the facility and warned of unsubstantiated false-flag operations, which European intelligence services say is disinformation. Ukraine says Russia is behind the shelling.

IAEA officials had originally only sought access to Zaporizhzhia to ensure that enriched-uranium stockpiles hadn’t gone missing during the course of the six-month war. The inclusion of security and safety experts will allow the agency to potentially perform a forensic evaluation of shelling against the plant, which could be used to hold attackers responsible.

The IAEA wants to visit the plant before September 5, when a two-week international mission was already scheduled to take place to examine safety systems at Europe’s biggest nuclear power station. That inspection was scheduled before the war broke out six months ago and would have been the first safety assessment of Zaporizhzhia in 16 years, the officials said.