International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) staff have reported hearing loud blasts near the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP), coinciding with reports of a drone attack on the plant’s training centre, “marking yet another threat to nuclear safety at Europe’s largest NPP, according to IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
ZNPP reported that a Ukrainian drone attacked building G of the p;ant’s Training Centre. The impact hit the roof of the building, which houses the world’s only full-scale simulator of the reactor hall. ZNPP’s press service said no one was injured and there was no serious damage.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attempted an attack with eight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on ZNPP and the operators’ town of Energodar. “All unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by air defence systems,” the report says. According to the ministry, the fall of one Ukrainian drone resulted in an explosion, which caused a fire on the roof of the training centre. The ministry confirmed that there were no injuries or serious damage and that staff at ZNPP were working normally. The radiation situation remained within the normal range.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry called on the IAEA to properly respond to the attack. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in her statement drew attention to the fact that Kiev had attacked the NPP on the eve of Orthodox Christmas. “We expect objective assessments and a clear reaction from the IAEA leadership in this regard, especially since the attacks on 5 January took place literally in the presence of the Agency’s specialists at the ZNPP,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its official website.
Zakharova also called on the IAEA to directly declare to Ukraine that attacks on Russian nuclear power facilities are unacceptable. She recalled that the Kiev authorities have repeatedly put the fate of the agency’s representatives at risk. “Kiev is ready to sacrifice the peoples of Europe by staging a catastrophe at ZNPP,” she noted. She stressed that Moscow calls on the international community to immediately respond to the attacks on ZNPP.
The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhia (ISAMZ) team stationed at ZNPP reported hearing two loud explosions coming from outside the perimeter of the site. “For now, the IAEA has not yet been able to confirm any impact. The IAEA team also reported hearing machine gun fire coming from the site on multiple occasions.
The IAEA is aware of reports of an alleged attack by a drone at the ZNPP training centre, just outside of the site’s perimeter. Reports state that there were no casualties and no impact on any NPP equipment,” IAEA said.
The ISAMZ team has reported that the intensity of military activities in the vicinity of Europe’s largest NPP – including multiple explosions at various distances from the site – has increased over the last 24 hours. “An attack on any nuclear power plant is completely unacceptable,” Director General Grossi stated. “In light of the increased military activity at ZNPP, I once again call for maximum restraint to avert the clear danger to its safety,” he said.
ZNPP Director Yuri Chernichuk told TASS that the consequences of radiation contamination and the amount of damage caused by a Ukrainian shell hitting the used fuel dry storage facility at ZNPP cannot be estimated. “It should be noted that in 2022, quite strong specialised structures were built to protect the nuclear storage facility from Ukrainian shells and fragments, and the level of security of the facility and its security was increased by an order of magnitude. However, anything can be broken,” he added.
“If you destroy the protection by hitting it with an artillery shell, of course, there will be no nuclear explosion. The most dangerous consequences are radiation contamination of the territory,” he said. “Radioactive dust gets into the soil, into ground water, it is carried by the wind. It could reach the Crimea or Kursk, Odessa or Kiev. Everything will depend on the circumstances, so the amount of damage is unpredictable.”
Earlier the ISAMZ continued to carry out walkdowns and follow maintenance activities to monitor the status of nuclear safety and security systems and equipment at the plant. “In another instance highlighting the precarious external power situation, the IAEA team stationed at the ZNPP, were informed that the plant’s last remaining 330 kV back-up power line was recently disconnected two times for maintenance from 20-22 December and from 24-25 December. Before the military conflict, Europe’s largest NPP was connected to four 750 kV and six 330 kV off-site power lines.”
The IAEA team was informed that unit 4’s circulation pump used to maintain the movement and cleanliness of water in the ZNPP cooling pond was switched off on 18 December to maintain a level of water in the cooling pond. The ZNPP confirmed that water from the 11 groundwater wells is sufficiently feeding the sprinkler ponds which provide cooling to the six reactor units in their current cold shutdown states. The six reactor units at the ZNPP have not operated at power for more than two years.
The IAEA team was informed that planned maintenance activities had been completed on safety trains in unit 2 and 6, as well as on one of the common emergency diesel generators. Additionally, diesel steam generators were operated between 12-30 December to treat roughly 800 cubic metres of liquid waste.
Meanwhile, ZNPP Director Yuri Chernichuk said in an interview with TASS that foreign equipment that was installed during Ukrainian control of ZNPP will be replaced with equipment of domestic production as part of the ongoing licensing process. “Even if something is missing, it will soon be available,” he said.
He explained that over the 30 years of Ukraine’s existence as a separate state after the collapse of the USSR, the basic approaches to ensuring safety, which also meet international requirements, had continued at its NPPs. However, he added that the Kiev authorities had sought to substitute Russian-made equipment at the plants.
“There is a lot of equipment that was manufactured abroad – even before the introduction of sanctions, our sites used equipment that was manufactured in Europe and America,” Chernichuk explained. He added that, while it is difficult to replace foreign equipment with domestic products, but it is feasible, and all the resources are available to solve this problem. In addition, he noted that American fuel at ZNPP is still “in a fairly large amount” and this issue also needs to be resolved.
Earlier, on December 29, the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Sergey Kiriyenko (a former head of Rosatom), called for preparations to be made for the fastest possible restart of the six units at ZNPP. He said the main task for 2025 was to ensure the safety of NPP, as well as to prepare the units for generation.
In September, the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, had also announced Russia’s readiness to start work on restarting the ZNPP, stressing that nuclear and physical security of plant was an absolute priority. He also gave assurances that there was no intention to restart the plant until the military conflict ended.
ZNPP management meanwhile plans to complete the process of obtaining Russian licences for the operation of all six units by 2028. He added that, by the end of 2025, ZNPP would have to obtain a licence to operate unit 1 as its current licence expires in December 2025. All six units are in cold shutdown but still require licences.
On December 20, ZNPP announced for the first time that it had received the first Russian licence from regulator Rostechnadzor for the operation of radiation sources, issued for a period of 10 years in accordance with Russian legislation. Rostekhnadzor did not find any violations at the plant and granted a licence allowing ZNPP to operate installations and devices with radioactive substances.
Chernichuk told TASS that ZNPP would eventually provide energy to Novorossiya, Crimea and Donbass. “The station will not operate alone but will be part of a big system. At least for all new regions and the Crimea will definitely be enough. Even if we restore the entire industry over time, our station will be enough, ” he said. He noted that once part of the unified energy system in Russia, the energy generated at ZNPP “could even supply the Urals”.
Russia took control of ZNPP in March 2022, shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Zaporozhye region, the territory where the NPP is located, became part of the Russian Federation following a referendum in September 2022 along with Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions (Novorossiya), Crimea has been part of the Russian Federation since 2014. However, Ukraine still claims control over all these territories.
