The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - Rafael Mariano Grossi - is set to meet his Russian counterparts in the upcoming days to address his concerns around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine.

 It is Europe's largest NPP and currently controlled by Russian troops, who are simultaneously shelling a city about 50 kilometers away. Reports according to which a missile had flown directly over an active nuclear reactor in Ukraine are currently being probed by Grossi's team.

"A missile going astray or something like this could have a very significant impact," Grossi told a CGTN reporter during a press conference on Thursday. "But we need to go back to Zaporizhzhia - this is extremely important."  

Grossi highlighted that in Zaporizhzhia there are tens of thousands of items of nuclear material - Plutonium as well as enriched Uranium. The safety of this material "is still the open question that we have at the moment," he said. 

Russia's atomic agency Rosatom said it had received Grossi's request that his team be authorized to visit the Zaporizhzhia site but according to Grossi, no  permission had been granted as of Thursday.

Almost two months ago, a combat projectile hit a building close to the Zaporizhzhia reactor. To date, the UN agency was not able to verify the site's physical protection of radioactive material and the functionality of safety equipment.

The IAEA also reports that radiation levels at Ukraine's Chernobyl exclusion zone are elevated but still in a safe range. The levels found at excavations apparently dug by Russian troops were not alarming and well below the maximum level which is authorized for workers.