IAEA mission to visit Ukraine's Chernobyl plant

VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday its expert mission would travel to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26 to help ensure the facility's safety.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will head the mission to "deliver vital equipment and conduct radiological and other assessments" at the Chernobyl plant, according to the agency's statement.

The IAEA experts will also repair remote safeguards monitoring systems at the plant, which have not been transmitting data to the agency's headquarters in Vienna since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

"The IAEA's presence at Chernobyl will be of paramount importance for our activities to support Ukraine as it seeks to restore regulatory control of the plant and ensure its safe and secure operation," Grossi said, adding that the agency will send more missions to Chernobyl and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Russian forces had been in control of the Chernobyl plant for five weeks before withdrawing on March 31, according to the IAEA statement.

The Chernobyl plant, some 110 km north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, suffered one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986.