Following IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi’s latest trips to Russia and Ukraine, the Agency provided details of his visit to the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP) where he examined a cooling tower to assess the damage it suffered in a major fire in August.
Inside the cooling tower, he saw significant damage on the interior walls, debris and blackened surfaces after ascending about 15 metres up into the massive concrete structure located more than one kilometre away from the six reactors, which are all in cold shutdown and do not currently need the cooling towers to remove residual heat.
While the fire did not endanger nuclear safety, “it underlined the constant risks the ZNPP is continuing to face in the third year of the armed conflict, with shelling, artillery strikes, drone attacks and other military activities regularly heard in the vicinity of the site,” the Agency said.
“It is clear that the cooling tower was damaged by the fire, and it may need to be demolished,” Director General Grossi said. “We will continue to closely look into this matter to try to establish what happened and what the consequences will be. Today was an important step in this work as we were able to see for ourselves the full extent of the damage.”
He added: “Coming a few months after the site was struck by a series of drone attacks, it is yet another incident showing the paramount importance of the IAEA presence at the site for as long as this devastating war goes on. The IAEA will continue to play its indispensable role in helping to avert the threat of a nuclear accident.”
He also saw first-hand how the plant is continuing to manage the aftermath of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June last year. In visiting a pumping station of one of the six reactor units, he was able to assess the availability of cooling water in the ZNPP cooling pond, which has now dropped by just over 2 metres since mid-2023.
While the water that provides cooling to the six shutdown reactors and other essential nuclear safety services is provided by the 11 groundwater wells, the cooling pond would be a primary water resource in case the wells became unavailable. In addition, Grossi toured a storage facility located in one of the ZNPP’s special buildings, containing fresh nuclear fuel.
Underlining the high risks at the ZNPP, the IAEA team stationed at the plant reported that its only remaining 330 kilovolt (kV) backup power line had been disconnected leaving it reliant on a single 750 kV line. Before, the war it had four 750 kV and six 330 kV power lines available. The line was reconnected after nearly three days.
Shortly after the disconnection occurred, the IAEA team observed dark smoke in an area close to where the power line was reportedly disconnected, about 3 kilometres away, but it was not immediately clear if these events were linked. ZNPP said it believed the power line cut was caused by military activities.
Meanwhile, the IAEA team at the plant continued to conduct walkdowns across the site visiting the 750 kV open switchyard where they observed ongoing maintenance work, as well as the water sprinkler ponds which receive water from the 11 groundwater wells dug after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed. The team confirmed that there is sufficient water available to cool the ZNPP’s shutdown reactors.
At the end of his visit to ZNPP, Grossi told journalists that the IAEA is concerned about the problems associated with the cooling of the reactors, especially after the destruction of the Kakhovskaya dam. “When I was here last summer, I saw that 11 additional reservoir wells were drilled. This was enough to stabilise the situation at the station, as it is now in a state of cold shutdown. But I didn’t know that additional work was being carried out on the hydrotechnical structures of the ZAES. This demonstrates that constant efforts are being made at the station to stabilise the situation, ” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
He added that IAEA has no complaints about the Russian specialists at the plant. “The people here are professionals in the nuclear power industry. I’ve known some of them for many, many years,” he said “Over the past two years, there have sometimes been cases where we disagree on some technical issues, but all the work is done at an extremely high professional level.”
IAEA reported that, elsewhere in Ukraine, Agency teams stationed at the Rivne and South Ukraine NPPs and the Chornobyl site had reported that these sites had not yet restored connection to all of their off-site power lines following widespread military activities in late August, targeting electrical substations that are important for nuclear safety. The teams also reported air raid alarms on most days.
At the Khmelnitsky NPP, the IAEA team heard drones and gunfire in and were told to shelter. The KNPP and the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) reported to the IAEA that drones had flown a few kilometres away from the plant.
IAEA said it had signed an agreement with France and Ukraine’s nuclear utility Energoatom under which Ukraine will receive the necessary spare parts for emergency diesel generators at the South Ukraine NPP. Similar assistance was also delivered to Ukraine in 2023.
Many of the same details were provided in Grossi’s opening statement to the recent IAEA Board of Governors meeting. He noted that the situation at ZNPP remains precarious. “In line with the Agency’s advice, it is understood that no reactor will be re-started as long as the conflict continues to jeopardise the nuclear safety and security of the plant,” he said.
He noted that, in May and August, the Agency had arranged 11 deliveries of nuclear safety and security equipment to Ukraine. Since the start of the armed conflict, a total of 60 deliveries of equipment worth more than €10m ($11m) has been made.
He also reported to the Board on his visit in August to Russia’s Kursk NPP which was under threat of attack by invading Ukrainian forces. “The imperative to ensure the physical integrity of a nuclear power plant is valid irrespective of where the plant is situated,” he said. “I appeal for maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
He noted that, following his trip to Ukraine, he had also travelled to Kaliningrad to discuss nuclear safety with senior leadership of Rosatom and other Russian officials. The meeting was closed to the press but Rosatom said the main topic of discussion was the safety of the Kursk and Zaporizhia NPPs.
The Russian delegation, led by Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev, included the representative of the Russian Federation to international organisations in Vienna; the Deputy Director of the Department for Nonproliferation & Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry; the Head of the Radiation, Chemical & Biological Protection Forces of the Russian Armed Forces; and the Head of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Objects of Rosgvardiya.
“The Kursk NPP is operating normally, as Raphael Grossi was able to verify during his visit on 27 August, said Likhachev. “With regard to the Zaporizhia NPP, the Russian side is doing everything necessary to ensure the safe operation of the plant in the face of increasing Ukrainian provocations.” The parties agreed to continue regular meetings.
Grossi told journalists in Kaliningrad after the meeting that the attack on the ZNPP cooling tower and the alarming situation at the Kursk NPP indicate the need for strict attention to ensuring nuclear safety at the stations. “These issues are extremely complex,” he said. “Yes, we have different understandings on various aspects. Nevertheless, we are united in our commitment to fulfil our professional duty and continue the dialogue aimed at ensuring nuclear safety at facilities.”
