Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA
The off-site power situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) remains extremely fragile, with Europe’s largest such site currently relying on just one single power line for essential nuclear safety and security functions compared with ten before the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.
The ZNPP’s last 330 kilovolt (kV) back-up line remains disconnected three weeks after the plant lost access to it on 7 May and it is unclear when it will be restored. As a result, the six-reactor plant depends entirely on its sole functioning 750 kV line to receive the external electricity it needs to operate the plants’ nuclear safety systems, and to cool its nuclear fuel.
Since the conflict began in early 2022, the ZNPP has eight times lost access to all off-site power, but it was usually restored within a day.
“Even though the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has not been operating for some three years now, its reactor cores and spent nuclear fuel still require continuous cooling, for which electricity is needed to run the water pumps. For this reason, the highly vulnerable power situation remains deeply concerning and we are following it very closely,” said Director General Grossi, who will visit Kyiv and Russia next week as part of his regular contacts with both sides to ensure nuclear safety and security during the conflict.
The IAEA team based at the ZNPP has continued to monitor and assess other aspects of nuclear safety and security during the past week, conducting a walkdown to measure and confirm stable levels of cooling water in the site’s 12 sprinkler ponds and visiting its two fresh fuel storage facilities, where no nuclear safety or security issues were observed.
The IAEA team reported hearing military activities on most days over the past week, at different distances away from the ZNPP.
At Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) – Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine – three of their total of nine reactors are in planned outage for refueling and maintenance.
The IAEA teams at these sites also continued to hear indications of military activities nearby. At the South Ukraine NPP, the IAEA staff members saw a drone being shot at by anti-aircraft fire in the evening of 23 May. The plant reported that 10 drones were observed 2.5 km south of the site on the same evening. At the Chornobyl site, two drones were reported flying five km from the site, also on 23 May. The IAEA team at the Khmelnytskyy NPP was required to shelter onsite on Monday this week.