The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again lost the remote connection to its safeguards surveillance systems installed at Ukraine's Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Wednesday, June 29.

"The fact that our remote safeguards data transmission is down again – for the second time in the past month – only adds to the urgency to dispatch this mission," he was quoted as saying in the agency's update on the situation in Ukraine.

The connection was lost again on June 25 "due to a disruption of the facility's communication systems."

Grossi said that a visit to Zaporizhia NPP should be organized, adding that inspectors can only carry out essential nuclear material verification work when they are at the site.

According to him, the interval of physical inventory verifications at NPPs cannot exceed a specified duration.

"This is particularly important at two of the units at Zaporichia NPP. These units have also been refuelled in recent months and a physical verification of the nuclear material therein is a safeguards pre-requisite before re-starting them," IAEA Director General said.

At the same time, the IAEA is also facing a partial loss of remote safeguards data transmission from Chornobyl NPP.

"Safeguards data from IAEA systems installed at two of the NPP's facilities are no longer being transmitted. The problem seems linked to safeguards equipment at the site, in which case IAEA technicians need to go there to restore communication," he said.

With the exception of Zaporizhia NPP, the IAEA continues to receive remote safeguards data from Ukraine's three other operational NPPs, the agency said.