Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that the general situation in the area around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) "remained difficult" due to destroyed bridges and demining activities and that the national regulator had still not had an "opportunity to inspect" the facility, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
Since Russian forces withdrew from Chornobyl on 31 March after five weeks, Ukraine has taken significant steps for the safe and secure operation of the site of the 1986 accident, carrying out the first rotation of staff in three weeks by boat from the nearby city of Slavutych and earlier this week re-establishing direct communications between the NPP and the regulator that had been down for more than a month, the Director General said.
But much work remains to return the site to normality, as highlighted by Ukraine in today's update to the IAEA, he said.
To support Ukraine in achieving this, Director General Grossi plans to head a mission of IAEA experts to the Chornobyl site later this month to conduct nuclear safety, security and radiological assessments, deliver vital equipment and repair the Agency's remote safeguards monitoring systems there.
Regarding the country's 15 operational reactors at four nuclear power plants, Ukraine said seven are currently connected to the grid, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya NPP, two at the Rivne NPP, two at the South Ukraine NPP, and one at the Khmelnytskyy NPP. The eight other reactors are shut down for regular maintenance or held in reserve. Safety systems remain operational at the four NPPs and they also continue to have off-site power available, Ukraine said.
In relation to safeguards, the IAEA said it was still not receiving remote data transmission from its monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP, but such data was being transferred to IAEA headquarters from the other NPPs in Ukraine.
