Putin Issues Decree to Ensure Safety of Zaporizhia Plant

On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to form a state-owned company that will be in charge of managing the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the facilities necessary for its operation.

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This company will have to guarantee the security of the facilities, which have been repeatedly attacked by the Ukrainian forces over the last two months.

Due to these security risks, on Sept. 11, the plant's reactors were turned off, causing concern in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

As of the parliamentary approval of the access treaties of new regions to the Federation, this nuclear plant is formally within Russian territory.

This week, the Russian company Rosenergoatom created a company to manage the operation of the nuclear plant and appointed its new director: Oleg Romanenko, a former chief engineer of another Russian plant.

Putin's decree was published shortly before IAEA Director Rafael Grossi's trip to Kyiv and Moscow, where he will carry out consultations aimed at agreeing and implementing a security zone around the plant.

Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and one of the 10 largest in the world. Built by the Soviet Union near the city of Enerhodar, this plant has six pressure slight pressure water reactors, which generated more than a fifth of the electricity produced in Ukraine.