Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sackett. My guest today has been

Director of the International Nuclear Watchdog, the IAEA, for the last three years, and that has put

Rafael Grossi front and centre in some of the world's most contentious and dangerous geopolitical

arenas. Right now, his most urgent priority is Ukraine,

more particularly his effort to ensure the safety of Europe's biggest nuclear power plant at

Zaporizia, which for the last eight months has been occupied by Russian troops. The plants

Ukrainian staff have been forced to work under duress in a war zone.

In September, Rafael Grosse himself went to Zaporisia in an effort to stabilize the

situation and avert potential catastrophe. The IAEA established a permanent monitoring presence,

but the underlying dangers persist.

Moscow has alleged, without evidence, that Ukraine was preparing a so-called dirty bomb,

laced with radioactive material from its civil nuclear facilities.

The IAEA is attempting to investigate that, too.

Beyond Ukraine, the watchdog remains central to the international

community's effort to monitor Iran's nuclear activities and ambitions. And Mr. Grosse has also

become an influential advocate for an expanded global role for nuclear power as a response to the

need for decarbonisation. But in the context of the instability

in Ukraine, the unknowns in Iran, do we really want to live in a world with more nuclear capacity?

Well, Rafael Grosse joins me now on the line from Vienna. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. It's good

to be with you again. Hello.

It's great to have you on the show. I think we have to begin with the situation in Zaporizia,

the huge nuclear power plant in Ukraine. You've spent months trying to stabilize the situation there.

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