Nuclear safety remains highly precarious at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) three years after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deployed its first team at the site, as the risk of a radiological accident persists for as long as the conflict continues, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.
On 1 September 2022, Director General Grossi crossed the frontline to establish the IAEA's presence at the site of Europe's largest nuclear power plant (NPP). Since that time, 61 IAEA staff members have been deployed as part of 30 team rotations at the plant, many more than once.
"Their presence at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is of paramount importance. In very challenging circumstances, they are closely monitoring nuclear safety and security at the site, enabling us to inform the world about developments there in a factual and impartial manner. It is crucial that the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya stays as long as it is needed to preserve nuclear safety in these extraordinary circumstances," Director General Grossi said.
Underlining the ever-present dangers to nuclear safety and security, the IAEA team at the ZNPP reported hearing explosions and other military activities on several days over the past week, coming from outside the site. Earlier today, the team reported hearing six explosions from very close to the site. No impact on nuclear safety and security was reported.
The extremely fragile off-site power situation and difficulties related to access to cooling water continue to be two of the most challenging areas for nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP.
For four months now, the ZNPP has been forced to rely on one single external power line for the electricity it needs to cool its six reactors in their current cold shutdown state and for other essential nuclear safety and security functions. Before the conflict, it had ten off-site power lines available.
The water level in the ZNPP cooling pond has dropped by just over 3.2 metres since the downstream Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June 2023, falling by almost 60 centimetres in the past three months alone. This recently prompted the ZNPP to build an isolation dam in the cooling pond channel that supplies water for several plant systems.
The IAEA team reports that the ZNPP is now using mobile pumps to transfer water from the main cooling pond into this cooling channel, whose current height of about 14.1 metres enables other pumps to provide cooling water to the main reactor unit transformers and other important operating systems.
"We will continue to monitor this matter very closely, as reliable access to cooling water is essential for nuclear safety and security," Director General Grossi said.
Last weekend, the IAEA team performed a walkdown of another vital part of the ZNPP cooling infrastructure - 12 sprinkler ponds that receive water from groundwater wells that were drilled after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. These ponds are providing water to cool the reactors and spent fuel, among other systems important to safety. The team confirmed that they are all full.
During the past week, the IAEA team also observed planned maintenance activities being performed on equipment that form part of the safety systems of reactor units 2 and 6.
The IAEA teams at Ukraine's operating NPPs - Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine - and the Chornobyl site continue to monitor nuclear safety and security at the respective sites.
On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, all IAEA teams reported air raid alarms. The team at Rivne also heard multiple rounds of gunfire and observed unidentified flying objects from their hotel, located approximately four kilometres from the plant. The site management informed the team that eight drones had been detected within its monitoring zone. The IAEA team members at the South Ukraine NPP were informed that three drones were identified two kilometres from the site. They were also told that one of its off-site power lines had been disconnected from the grid, reportedly due to damage.
Maintenance and refuelling activities are taking place at two of Ukraine's nine operating power reactors.
The team at Chornobyl conducted a walkdown of the New Safe Confinement, observing that debris as a result of the drone strike in February was being removed in preparation for the installation of temporary roofing, which is expected to commence later this month.
