Staff at the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP) have experienced further hardships because of the military conflict, with yet another power outage in the nearby city of Energodar and a shortage of tap water also affecting their workplace, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his latest update.
In the latest incident, the IAEA team stationed at the ZNPP was informed by the plant that a military strike damaged a regional sub-station, cutting electricity to Energodar and also impacting water supplies. For the second time in a week, the IAEA experts reported that there was no tap water available in some buildings at the NPP site.
People living in Energodar, including most ZNPP employees, have faced several such privations in recent weeks, in some cases following reports of drone attacks on electrical sub-stations in the city, located around 5 kilometres from ZNPP. Energodar remained without power, while water supplies were partially restored.
“Such incidents clearly add to an already very stressful situation for people working at the Zaporizhia NPP. We will continue to monitor the situation. The general well-being of staff is a source of concern since it can also have an impact on nuclear safety and security,” Grossi said.
Despite the instability in the electricity and water supply to Energodar, the availability of off-site power and cooling water at ZNPP was unaffected, as it continues to receive electricity from two remaining off-site power lines. Eleven groundwater wells continue to provide the water needed to maintain cooling of the six reactors in cold shutdown conditions.
In what has become a regular occurrence since the IAEA mission at the ZNPP was established in September 2022, the experts have continued to hear explosions and gunfire at various distances from the site. Due to an air raid alarm, the IAEA team was not able to perform planned walkdowns on 11 July, even though there were no sounds of military activity during this time. On two occasions over the previous week, the IAEA team observed smoke in the distance, which the ZNPP said was due to forest fires.
As part of their mission to monitor nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP, the IAEA team has continued to closely follow ongoing maintenance activities, which are of crucial importance not only for the current situation but also for longer-term nuclear safety at the site. IAEA said safety system maintenance work on reactor units 1&6 and on the main transformer of unit 3 is making continued headway, some of it also observed by the experts.
In recent days, the IAEA experts visited the main control rooms of units 3, 4, 5 and 6, as well as some safety system rooms. Late last week, they went to the turbine building of unit 1, where they were able to go to all floors but once again without being granted access to the western side of the building. They also observed simulator activities in the ZNPP training centre.
