Cooling tower No. 1 of Zaporizhia NPP was seriously damaged by fire on August 11 and may be dismantled, said Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi following his fifth visit to the plant since its occupation by Russia on March 4, 2022.

"Until today, we hadn’t been able to get to this point. So we can assess in a much better way the damage that occurred. This big structure is not usable in the future, so it will probably be demolished at some point in the future," Grossi commented on what he saw at the Zaporizhia NPP on the X network on Wednesday evening.

He also reported that he visited the water pumping station and the storage facility for fresh nuclear fuel.

"We will be analyzing, assessing what we saw today," Grossi said.

According to him, "until the conflict is over or it enters a phase where there is no more active military activity," the possibility of a serious incident at the Zaporizhia NPP cannot be ruled out.

As reported, at about 20:00 on August 11, a fire broke out at a technical water supply facility on the territory of the Zaporizhia NPP, which resulted in the ignition of cooling tower No. 1 and damage to other process equipment.

Energoatom stated that the probable cause of the fire could be the negligence of the Russian occupiers or deliberate arson, but there were no violations of the boundaries and conditions for safe operation. The cooling tower is located approximately one kilometer from the power units of the plant.

The IAEA then reported that it could not yet draw final conclusions about the cause of the fire based on the data and observations received and would continue its analysis.

At the same time, Grossi called it unlikely that the primary source of the fire began at the base of the cooling tower.

The occupation leadership of the Zaporizhia NPP stated that it allows for the dismantling of the cooling tower.