The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has said the director of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, who was recently released after reports that he had been abducted by Russian forces, will not return to his job.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that Ihor Murashov was with his family in territory controlled by Ukraine "and will not be continuing with his duties" at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
It is not yet clear who will replace him, Grossi said in the statement, which added that the absence of Murashov "had an immediate and serious impact on decision-making in ensuring the safety and security of the plant."
Grossi on October 3 welcomed the release of Murashov, who, according to Enerhoatom, the Ukrainian state company that oversees the plant, was taken out of a car on October 1, blindfolded, and driven in an unknown direction.
The IAEA said his detention had a "very significant impact" on him.
Grossi also said in his statement on October 4 that he plans to travel to Kyiv and then to Moscow later this week to continue his consultations aimed at agreeing and implementing a safety and security protection zone around the plant.
The IAEA has called for the creation of a the zone, but Russia has rejected the proposal.
The head of Enerhoatom earlier said it was considering restarting the Zaporizhzhya power plant, currently occupied by Russian troops, as a safety measure as winter nears.
In an interview with the AP published on October 4, Enerhoatom President Petro Kotin said the company could restart two of the reactors in a matter of days to protect safety installations as temperatures drop.
"If you have low temperature, you will just freeze everything inside. The safety equipment will be damaged," he said in his office at the company's Kyiv headquarters.
"So you need heating and the only heating is going to come from the working reactor," he added.
The last of the plant's six reactors was shut down on September 11 because Russian military activity had cut reliable external power supplies for cooling and other safety systems, threatening a potentially catastrophic meltdown that raised concern across the globe.
Russian troops occupy the plant and the surrounding area, including the nearby town of Enerhodar, where thousands of Ukrainian workers continue to maintain the facility.
The plant is also the only source of heat for the town, Kotin said, adding that a decision on a restart could be made as early as October 5.
"We at the moment are evaluating all the risks. And this depends on the weather. And actually, we don't have much time to do that," Kotin said.
