Noting that the armed conflict in Ukraine had exceeded 1,000 days, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the recent IAEA Board of Governors’ meeting that IAEA had been supporting nuclear safety and security in Ukraine from the start. This included 155 missions having so far been deployed as part of a continued presence at all NPP sites.
Ukraine’s power system is a growing concern for nuclear safety at its three operating NPPs – Khmelnitsky, Rivne and South Ukraine – which require a reliable and stable connection to the national grid both to transmit the electricity they generate and to receive the off-site power they need for vital nuclear safety functions, Grossi noted.
The risks they are facing were highlighted last weekend, when Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was reportedly targeted in widespread attacks, less than three months after military strikes caused extensive damage to a number of electrical substations across the country, which the IAEA has identified as important for nuclear safety.
Four of these substations and their power lines were impacted again by the attacks, prompting Ukraine’s operating NPPs to reduce their power output as a precautionary measure. The NPPs in recent days gradually started restoring the power lines and began increasing output, but again lowered power generation as a precaution, before it was once again restored.
Separately, the South Ukraine NPP has disconnected from its two 750 kV power lines for maintenance but continued to receive power from its back-up systems. “The growing instability of the power grid is a deepening source of concern for nuclear safety, affecting all the nuclear power plants,” Grossi said.
IAEA teams visited seven substations in September and October to assess the damage caused by attacks in August, as part of their wider efforts to help ensure nuclear safety and security. They “documented extensive damage to all the substations visited, concluding that the grid’s capability to provide a reliable off-site power supply to Ukrainian NPPs has been significantly reduced”, Grossi noted. Repairs and additional protective measures are being implemented by Ukraine, he added.
IAEA teams present at the Khmelnitsky, Rivne and South Ukraine NPPs and the Chornobyl site reported that nuclear safety and security is being maintained despite the grid instability and the effects of the ongoing conflict, including a number of air raid alarms.
The Agency continues to deliver on its comprehensive programme of assistance to Ukraine. Following the delivery of ambulances to Chornobyl and the Varash hospital, medical equipment were delivered to the Slavutich health centre, the Varash and Netishyn hospitals and the National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine, Haematology & Oncology. This included blood and urine analysers, defibrillators as well as electrocardiograph, x-ray and glucose monitoring systems.
In a separate delivery, the Centralised Spent Fuel Storage Facility, a subdivision of the Ukrainian operator Energoatom, received a dosimetry system to monitor individual doses of staff. The deliveries were supported with funding from Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and the US. Since the start of the conflict, the IAEA has coordinated 82 deliveries of equipment and supplies to Ukraine, with a total value of more than €12.4m ($10.35m).
