Category: Press Release

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) peer review mission said Italy is committed to addressing the challenges of safely managing its radioactive waste. The review identified areas for additional efforts, including the swift approval of plans for a national repository for spent fuel and radioactive waste.  

The Integrated Review Service for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation (ARTEMIS) review team concluded the ten-day mission to Italy on 10 October. The review was carried out at the request of Italy and hosted by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (‘MASE’).

The team engaged with representatives of MASE, the National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ISIN), and the Italian state owned company responsible for the decommissioning of Italian nuclear plants and the management of radioactive waste, SOGIN, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development (ENEA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Ispra.

The ARTEMIS review team comprised six experts from Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Lithuania, and France and three IAEA staff members.

Italy’s radioactive waste management responsibilities arise from decommissioning four nuclear power reactors and facilities from the country’s former nuclear power programme. All nuclear power plants were closed by 1990. Italy also manages radioactive waste from the operation of five research reactors, research laboratories and experimental facilities and from activities in medicine, industry and other uses.

Italy stores waste at temporary storage sites near decommissioned nuclear power reactors and other nuclear facilities. It plans to establish a national repository comprised of a near surface disposal facility for very low level and low level waste, a centralized storage for intermediate level and high level waste as well as a technology research park. The search for a suitable site is underway.

The ARTEMIS review team concluded that the Italian counterparts are aware of the challenges of safely managing the country’s radioactive waste and are committed to addressing them.

“Italy has thoroughly prepared for the ARTEMIS review mission, proactively shared pertinent information and engaged in constructive discussions. I am confident that the mission will support Italy in managing nuclear and radiological waste,” said ARTEMIS team leader Paul McClelland, Director, Waste Management & Technical Support at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

The team identified areas for improvements, including a formal approval for the national radioactive waste management programme, the development of a Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) programme clearly linked to supporting implementation of the national programme, and the consideration of international experience in resource planning.   

The ARTEMIS Review Team identified concrete recommendations and suggestions, including:

• The Government should approve the 2023 National Programme, that includes geological disposal as a final destination for spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

• The Government should ensure that the process for authorization of closure of the planned near surface disposal facility requires update of the safety report as part of the application.

• The Government should take measures to ensure that the time constraints imposed on preparation and review of the safety case and safety assessment for the national repository will not compromise safety.
   
• ISIN should implement its own Research and Development programme to build its expertise to review safety cases for the activities in the National Programme.
   

The review also acknowledged Italy’s comprehensive training and development programmes for nuclear professionals as a good practice. 

“The ARTEMIS peer review has been an excellent forum for the exchange of experiences and lessons learned in an open and transparent manner. We are grateful that the review team recognized our efforts so far to establish a well-managed spent fuel and radioactive waste system. We are fully committed to addressing the recommendations and suggestions that have been highlighted, which will make an important contribution to strengthening our capabilities and valuable guidelines for further improvements,” said Mariano Cordone, Director of Nuclear Division at Ministry of MASE.

Anna Clark, Head of the IAEA’s Waste and Environmental Safety Section, said that Italy is clearly committed to the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. “Italy’s approach to this peer review mission has enabled open and fruitful discussions. This has allowed members of the ARTEMIS peer review team to share relevant experience, for example relating to time and resources required to plan for geological disposal.  We are confident that the findings will help Italy to further enhance the safe and effective management of spent fuel and radioactive waste” she said.

The final report from the review will be provided to the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security in two months.

About ARTEMIS

The Integrated Review Service for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation (ARTEMIS) is an integrated expert review service for radioactive waste and spent fuel management, decommissioning and remediation programmes. ARTEMIS reviews provide independent expert assessments using teams of international specialist peer reviewers convened by the IAEA and are based on the IAEA Safety Standards, technical guidance, and international good practices. This service is intended for facility operators and organizations responsible for radioactive waste management, as well as for regulators, national policymakers and other decision-makers.

The IAEA Safety Standards provide a robust framework of fundamental principles, requirements, and guidance to ensure safety. They reflect an international consensus and serve as a global reference for protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. IAEA documents, such as Nuclear Energy Series publications, are also included in the review basis. They include practical examples to be used by owners and operators of utilities, implementing organizations, academia, and government officials in Member States, among others.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts were today granted access to the rooftop of reactor unit 2 of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and did not observe any mines or explosives there, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

From the top of the building, the IAEA team could also observe the entire rooftop of its turbine hall as well as parts of the rooftops of the reactor buildings and turbine halls of units 1 and 3, also without seeing any mines or explosives, Director General Grossi said.

The team will continue making its long-standing request to also visit the rooftops of reactor units 1, 5 and 6 to monitor compliance with the five concrete principles for protecting Europe’s largest nuclear power plant (NPP) during the military conflict in Ukraine, which state that it should neither be attacked nor be used as a base for heavy weapons.

Today’s development comes after IAEA experts on 3 August were allowed access to the rooftops of units 3 and 4, following reports that explosives may have been placed there. Also at that time, they did not observe any mines or explosives.

“After repeated requests in recent months, we were at last able to go to one more reactor rooftop. While this is a step in the right direction, we still need more access to assess adherence to the five principles, which were presented and gained support at the United Nations Security Council. We will continue to insist until this is granted,” Director General Grossi said.

The IAEA experts also require access to all six turbine halls to be able to confirm the absence of any materials and equipment that may contravene the five principles.  This request has not yet been approved and the IAEA team can only confirm the status of one turbine hall at a time.

Highlighting the risks facing the plant during the military conflict, the IAEA team at the site has continued to hear explosions almost every day. Usually, they appear to occur some distance away from the plant, but yesterday four blasts took place closer to the site.

“Without any doubt, the nuclear safety and security situation at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant remains highly precarious. We will continue to do everything we can do help prevent a nuclear accident during the war in Ukraine,” Director General Grossi said.

Of the ZNPP’s six reactors, five remain in cold shutdown, while unit 4 continues to be in a state of hot shutdown to generate steam to heat water for the nearby town of Enerhodar – where most plant staff live – and to process liquid radioactive waste.

As previously reported, Ukraine’s national regulator, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), has issued regulatory orders to limit the operation of all six units of the ZNPP to a cold shutdown state. In addition, the IAEA has been strongly encouraging the ZNPP to find an alternative source of steam generation to cover the plant’s needs and allow for all the reactors to be maintained in a cold shutdown state.

The ZNPP is continuing to conduct maintenance activities on unit 6 following its transition to cold shutdown earlier this month. The IAEA experts were informed that the site performed testing on two of the unit’s steam generators due to the presence of boron in the secondary circuit, which is an indicator of a leak, albeit much smaller than that found in one of the steam generators of Unit 4, which was subsequently repaired. In unit 6, the tests performed by the ZNPP identified small water leaks in one tube of each steam generator, which have now been repaired and testing is being performed to confirm the successful repair.

The IAEA experts are also continuing to monitor the water situation at the plant following the destruction of the downstream Kakhovka dam in early June. To find alternative sources of cooling water for the reactors and spent fuel, the plant has recently completed the construction of 11 underground wells which are together supplying around 250 cubic metres per hour, which the site had estimated would be sufficient to maintain the level of all 12 sprinkler cooling ponds, which have remained steady following some issues with their levels in late September.

Over the past week, the IAEA team has conducted walkdowns across the site, including within the site perimeter, in the main control room and reactor building of unit 5 and in the reactor building of unit 6. The experts have also observed testing of the safety system of unit 2 and maintenance activities on the transformer of unit 6. During these walkdowns, the team did not observe any new mines or explosives.

As part of these activities, the IAEA experts also closely observe the performance of the operating staff as the team collects more information about the status of staffing and the training and licensing of staff at the plant.

IAEA teams at Ukraine’s three other NPPs and the Chornobyl site report safe and secure operations of these nuclear facilities despite the continuation of the armed conflict.

The IAEA team based at the Rivne NPP said it had completed scheduled maintenance of unit 2, including the successful loading of a new type of fuel into this reactor. After it was re-started, the reactor was today reconnected to the grid.

Over the past week, the IAEA completed its 27th and 28th deliveries of equipment and other items designed to enhance nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, providing two Starlink terminals with associated equipment to the Khmelnytskyy NPP to support reliable communications to and from the site as well as a mobile helium leak detector with accessories for tightness control to the South Ukraine NPP. The equipment was procured with funds provided by the European Union, including the European Commission.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has demonstrated commitment to safety for all applications and occurrences of radiation sources in the country. The team recommended actions for improvement, including the establishment of a national strategy for radioactive waste management. 

The Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission, the first to Saudi Arabia, was conducted at the request of the Government of Saudi Arabia and hosted by the Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Commission (NRRC). The ten-day mission took place from 1 to 10 October 2023.

Using IAEA safety standards and international good practices, IRRS missions are designed to strengthen the effectiveness of the national regulatory infrastructure while recognizing the responsibility of each country for nuclear, radiation, radioactive waste and transport safety.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia’s Government announced its national policy for an atomic energy programme for peaceful uses, committing to achieve the highest safety and security standards in nuclear and radiation facilities, activities and practices.  The country uses radioactive sources in medicine, industry, research, and education and has an important Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) industry, areas that were the focus of this IRRS mission. The NRRC regulates all nuclear and radiological activities and facilities.

The IRRS team – consisting of senior regulatory experts from ten IAEA Member States, three IAEA staff members and one observer – met with officials from the NRRC to assess Saudi Arabia’s regulatory framework for radiation safety against IAEA safety standards. The IRRS team members observed the working practices during inspections carried out by NRRC at the nuclear medicine facility at Alhabib Hospital, the Sure Beam Middle East, L.L.C industrial irradiator facility, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and a radioactive waste storage facility. The IRRS team members also visited NRRC’s environmental monitoring laboratories. The team noted that relationships between the regulatory body and authorized parties were constructive and open.

“Overall, we found that the regulatory programme of Saudi Arabia is well established, considering that it was only established four years ago,” said Paul Dale, from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in the United Kingdom and Team Leader for the mission. “The regulatory oversight of radiation safety is solid, established and progressing, the IRRS team welcomes the commitment of NRRC to continue to progress its regulatory systems and to continually improve.”

The team found that Saudi Arabia has adopted the policies, principles, and strategies to further continue the development of the regulatory programme for radiation safety and concluded that it is fully committed to safety in all applications of atomic technology in the country.

The IRRS team observed the following good practices:

• The establishment of a Joint Government Organizations Policy (JGoP) as a legally binding mechanism for ensuring legal division of labour to deliver effective joint working arrangements and coordination between the NRRC and other relevant government agencies and for the tasks and responsibilities to be clearly assigned to avoid any omissions, undue duplication or conflicting requirements.
• The establishment of a certified business continuity management system by the NRRC for maintaining the regulatory oversight of facilities and activities continuity of its critical regulatory functions in any disruptive or emergency situation.

The IRRS team also made recommendations and suggestions for the Government and NRRC which will enhance the effectiveness of the regulatory framework and functions in line with the IAEA safety standards, including:

• To establish a national strategy for radioactive waste management to outline arrangements for ensuring the implementation of the national policy.
• To consider establishing a competence framework led by the NRRC for building and maintaining competence in safety.
• To consider developing and implementing national comprehensive arrangements, with clear roles for relevant organizations, to search for and regain control over legacy of radioactive sources including orphan sources.
• To complete and implement a protection strategy for NORM exposure situations.
• The NRRC should formally recognize Technical Service Organizations in Saudi Arabia that may have significance for safety.

The IRRS Team also noted that the majority of the areas identified for further improvement were identified by Saudi Arabia itself in its self-assessment, made in advance of the mission.

“The NRRC values its strategic partnership with the IAEA and welcomes the conclusions of IRRS mission. The outcomes from the mission will help guide the strengthening of the regulatory framework for radiation safety and will be used to formulate the strategy of the NRRC for the following years,” said Khalid Aleissa, Chief Executive Officer of the NRRC.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with NRRC as regulator made a big step forward in developing the regulatory framework for radiation safety,” added Hildegarde Vandenhove, Director of the IAEA Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety at the closing session today. “I am confident that the recommendations and suggestions highlighted during the review mission, will be considered and implemented.”

Background

General information about IRRS missions can be found on the IAEA website. The IRRS regulatory review process provides a peer review of both regulatory technical and policy issues and is suitable for any State, regardless of the level of development of its activities and practices that involve ionizing radiation or a nuclear programme. IRRS teams evaluate a State’s regulatory infrastructure for safety against IAEA safety standards. The teams compile their findings in reports that provide recommendations and suggestions for improvement and note good practices that can be adapted for use elsewhere to strengthen safety. Mission reports describe the effectiveness of the regulatory oversight of nuclear, radiation, radioactive waste and transport safety and highlight how it can be further strengthened.

The IAEA Safety Standards provide a robust framework of fundamental principles, requirements, and guidance to ensure safety. They reflect an international consensus and serve as a global reference for protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scientists and international scientific observers will visit Japan next week to take marine samples near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS). The Agency’s samples will be used to corroborate Japan’s environmental monitoring and to assess the country’s relevant technical capabilities. 

This work supports the IAEA’s ongoing monitoring and assessment activities in Japan under the Agency’s overall safety review of the ALPS treated water discharges which is assessing whether TEPCO and the Government of Japan are applying the relevant international safety standards.  The results from the new samples will also be compared against samples taken last year to determine whether any changes have occurred in the levels of radionuclides in the marine environment since the ALPS treated water discharges began in August this year.

The mission will also provide samples for the Agency’s project initiated in 2014 to support the quality assurance of broader marine environmental monitoring by Japanese laboratories related to the decommissioning of FDNPS. Reports from this work can be found on the IAEA website.

From 16-23 October, the IAEA team will observe the collection and processing of seawater, marine sediment and fish samples from coastal waters in the vicinity of the FDNPS.

Two staff from the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories in Monaco, as well as experts from laboratories in Canada, China and Republic of Korea, will participate in the sample collection. The team will also take part in the sampling of fish from markets in the Fukushima Prefecture.

Identical samples will be sent to all laboratories participating in the comparison study and analysed for radioactivity. The results of the analyses done by Health Canada, the Third Institute of Oceanography, China, and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety – members of the network of Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity – and those obtained by the participating Japanese laboratories, will be submitted to the IAEA for the evaluation of the results for any statistically significant differences, and publication.

Additionally, the IAEA Task Force conducting the safety review of Japan’s release of the ALPS treated water will reconvene and conduct its first mission to Japan since the start of the water discharges.  It is the next in a series of missions that began in 2021 and will continue throughout the IAEA’s safety review of the discharges. Media opportunities will be conveyed towards the end of this week.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today released its annual outlook for nuclear power in the coming decades, revising up its global growth projections for a third straight year.

In both its high and low case scenarios, the IAEA now sees a quarter more nuclear energy capacity installed by 2050 than it did as recently as 2020, underscoring how a growing number of countries are looking to this clean and reliable energy source to address the challenges of energy security, climate change and economic development.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi announced the new projections, contained in the annual report “Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050”, during the opening of the IAEA’s 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power 2023: Atoms4NetZero in Vienna.

“Climate change is a big driver, but so is security of energy supply,” Director General Grossi said in describing the reasons for the improved outlook. “Many countries are extending the lifetime of their existing reactors, considering or launching construction of advanced reactor designs and looking into small modular reactors (SMRs), including for applications beyond the production of electricity.”

In the high case scenario of the new outlook, nuclear installed capacity is seen more than doubling by 2050 to 890 gigawatts electric (GW(e)) compared with today’s 369 GW(e). In the low case, capacity increases to 458 GW(e). From last year’s outlook, the high and low cases have risen by 2% and 14%, respectively.

In 2021, the IAEA revised up its projections for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. Since the 2020 outlook, the high case projections to 2050 have now increased by 178 GW(e), a 24% increase. The report’s low case projections have seen even higher growth of about 26%.

Amid a rapidly transforming global energy landscape, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical situation, and military conflict, the significant increase in the capacity forecast underlines how more and more countries view nuclear energy as a resilient, reliable and low carbon energy source. The report also reflects nuclear power’s importance in ensuring energy security to prevent future fluctuations in availability and prices.

Navigating the Challenges Ahead

Despite the optimistic outlook, challenges inherent in climate change, financing, economic considerations, and supply chain complexities persist and might hamper the industry’s growth. While international collaboration and other efforts are underway to overcome these obstacles, including the IAEA’s Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative (NHSI) to facilitate the deployment of safe and secure SMRs, much remains to be done to achieve a fair and enabling investment environment for new nuclear projects, according to the report.

“‘Nuclear energy or renewables’ is a false narrative,” Director General Grossi said. “Such false narratives are to the detriment of everyone, especially when it comes to achieving a fair and enabling investment environment. We are not at a level playing field yet. To get there, decisions need to be made from a technologically agnostic view that is based on science, fact and reason.”

Since it was first published over 40 years ago, the IAEA projections have been continually refined to reflect an evolving global energy context. Over the past decade, nuclear power development has remained within the range of projections described in prior editions of the annual report.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The tritium concentration in the second batch of diluted ALPS treated water, which Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started discharging today, is far below the country’s operational limit, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts present at the site confirmed.

Japan started discharging the first batch of ALPS treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) on 24 August. It is released in batches and TEPCO began the process to discharge the second batch today.

Just as they did before the discharge of the first batch, IAEA experts stationed at the IAEA Fukushima NPS Office took samples from the second batch of diluted water on 3 October, after it was prepared for discharge. The IAEA’s independent on-site analysis confirmed – as it also did for the first batch – that the tritium concentration in the diluted water that is being discharged is far below the operational limit of 1,500 becquerels per litre.

The IAEA has committed to decades of independent monitoring and assessment at the site and at sea as Japan carries out the water discharge.

All future reports on independent sampling, data corroboration, and analysis activities will be available on the IAEA website.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is now once again using reactor unit 4 to generate steam for various safety functions at the facility after the repair of a water leak detected in mid-August, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

After completing the transition of unit 4 to hot from cold shutdown last Saturday, the ZNPP placed reactor unit 6 – which had temporarily been producing such steam during the repair work – in cold shutdown, which was reached yesterday morning.

As previously reported, Ukraine’s national regulator, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), has issued regulatory orders to limit the operation of all six units of the ZNPP to a cold shutdown state. In addition, the IAEA has been strongly encouraging the ZNPP to find an alternative source of steam generation to cover the plant’s needs, including for processing liquid radioactive waste, and allow for all the reactors to be maintained in a cold shutdown state.

After it reached cold shutdown, the ZNPP began maintenance activities of unit 6, starting with its unit transformer and one of its safety trains in order to clean the heat exchangers. The ZNPP reactors each have three separate and independent redundant systems – known as safety trains –  comprising the units’ safety systems, which are normally in stand-by mode ready to activate if needed to maintain safety.

Separately, a new team of IAEA experts arrived at the ZNPP on Tuesday to replace their colleagues who have been there for the past several weeks, the twelfth such mission since Director General Grossi on 1 September last year established a permanent Agency presence at the site to help prevent a nuclear accident during the conflict in Ukraine.

“Once again, our experts have crossed the frontline to help ensure nuclear safety and security at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant which is caught up in the middle of the war. We should all be grateful for their determination to do everything they can to achieve this important task. Their presence is necessary to monitor the situation at the site and to provide impartial and timely information to the international community,” Director General Grossi said.

In a significant development for the IAEA’s mission at the site, Director General Grossi said the Agency had taken delivery of armoured vehicles acquired with extra-budgetary support from Japan. In addition, funding from Germany has enabled the IAEA to hire drivers and security personnel for these rotations.  

“These vehicles and dedicated personnel are essential for ensuring the safety of IAEA staff during rotations to and from the plant. They will also allow us to conduct our missions with full logistical independence,” Director General Grossi said. 

The new IAEA team continues to request access to all six turbine halls on the same day, one after the other, to be able to confirm the absence of any materials and equipment that may contravene the five concrete principles for the protection of the ZNPP.  This request has not yet been approved and the team can only confirm the status of one turbine hall at a time.

The IAEA experts are also continuing to request access to the rooftops of reactor buildings 1, 2, 5 and 6, which they had expected to be granted this week.

“We will insist until we get the access we need in order to monitor compliance with the five concrete principles for the protection of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant,” Director General Grossi said.

IAEA teams at Ukraine’s three other Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) and the Chornobyl site report safe and secure operations of these nuclear facilities despite the continuation of the armed conflict.

The IAEA on Monday completed its 26th delivery of equipment and other items designed to enhance nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, providing the Rivne NPP with equipment for measuring the dissolved hydrogen concentration in primary water samples at the plant. The equipment was procured using Japanese extrabudgetary contribution.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opened today a unique nuclear security training centre, the first international facility of its type, to support the growing efforts to tackle global nuclear terrorism.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi officially opened the IAEA Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre during a ceremony at the Agency’s Seibersdorf laboratories in Austria, attended by representatives from 45 countries and territories.

The centre will provide more than 2000 square meters of specialized technical infrastructure and equipment for course participants to learn about the physical protection of nuclear and other radioactive material, as well as detection and response to criminal acts involving nuclear material and facilities.

“Nuclear security is one of the most important areas of our work to make sure that nuclear material never falls into the wrong hands,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “The international nuclear security centre of excellence – opened today – is where experts on nuclear security and the physical protection of nuclear material from all over the world will be trained to hone their skills.”

Requests to the Agency for training in nuclear security have increased in recent years as more countries embark on nuclear power programmes and after the 2016 entry into force of the Amendment of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) – the only legally binding international instrument in the area of physical protection of nuclear material.

Over two floors, the new centre contains simulated environments, virtual reality tools and advanced software. It will provide hands on practice on nuclear security systems for the physical protection of nuclear facilities, information and computer security, nuclear forensics, major public events and other nuclear security areas of work.

“We are giving countries the tools to do nuclear better, safer and in a secure way”, added Director General Grossi.

The centre will welcome the first trainees next week for a course on security management of radioactive material, one of the 23 training courses and workshops to be offered.

“By building this new centre, the IAEA can offer unique training activities to address existing gaps using specialized up-to-date equipment, computer-based simulation tools and advanced training methods,” said Elena Buglova, Director of the IAEA Division of Nuclear Security.

The centre is part of a multi-purpose building that was built with over €18 million in extra-budgetary funding by fifteen donors, as well as in-kind contributions, bolstering the capabilities of the IAEA to respond to countries’ needs in capacity building for nuclear security.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is preparing to once again use reactor unit 4 to generate steam for various safety functions at the facility, following repairs that put it out of action for several weeks, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

After the plant conducted hydraulic pressure tests on the primary and secondary cooling circuits of this unit, IAEA experts at the site said the ZNPP this week began transitioning it from cold to hot shutdown. Once this is done, the ZNPP plans to return unit 6 to cold shutdown. Unit 6 has been providing steam in hot shutdown since mid-August, after a water leak was detected in one of unit 4’s four steam generators.

While unit 4 was in cold shutdown, the ZNPP identified that the cause of the water leak was a hairline crack in the weld of the steam generator’s primary header vent pipe, which has now been repaired and tested. 

As previously reported, Ukraine’s national regulator, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), has issued regulatory orders to limit the operation of all six units to a cold shutdown state. In addition, the IAEA has been strongly encouraging the ZNPP to find an alternative source of steam generation to cover the plant’s needs, including for processing liquid radioactive waste, and allow for all its six reactors to be maintained in a cold shutdown state.

The IAEA experts were informed this week that the ZNPP had ordered the equipment needed to generate enough steam to meet the site’s requirements. The installation of this equipment is expected in the first part of next year, provided there are no supply chain delays, the ZNPP said.

“The IAEA has repeatedly been calling for an alternative steam solution so that all six reactors can be put in cold shutdown, as instructed by Ukraine’s regulator. I hope that the plant will implement this change as soon as possible,” Director General Grossi said.

In the latest indications of military activities some distance away from the ZNPP, the experts continue to hear explosions almost every day and have also heard machine gun fire, highlighting the risks to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant (NPP) during the military conflict in Ukraine.

The IAEA team is continuing to look at the situation regarding ZNPP staffing, which has declined significantly since the beginning of the conflict and remains complex and challenging. This week, the IAEA experts have been gathering further information, including visiting main control rooms and the training centre where they discussed training and licensing.

As part of their walkdowns over the past week, the IAEA experts visited the turbine hall of unit 6, observing no military equipment there. The team noted during a walkdown within the site perimeter that some of the mines previously observed had been removed while some work was being performed on the interior fences.

The IAEA team is continuing to request access to all six turbine halls, one after the other, to be able to confirm the absence of any materials and equipment that may contravene the five concrete principles for the protection of the ZNPP.  So far, this request has not been approved and the team can only confirm the status of one turbine hall at a time.

The IAEA experts are also continuing to request access to the rooftops of reactor buildings 1, 2, 5 and 6, which they had expected to be granted last month. The IAEA is now awaiting approval for such access next week.

“As I have said repeatedly in recent months, we will continue requesting the access we need to implement our important mission, including for monitoring compliance with the five concrete protection principles designed to prevent a nuclear accident at the site,” Director General Grossi said.

Regarding the site’s water situation, the IAEA experts said the ZNPP had completed drilling another groundwater well to supply the site’s sprinkler ponds used for reactor cooling and other nuclear safety and security functions, bringing the total to 11 new wells as part of efforts to find alternative sources of water following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam almost four months ago.   

The 11 wells are supplying around 250 cubic metres per hour, which the site had estimated would be sufficient to maintain the level of all 12 sprinkler cooling ponds.

However, the IAEA experts observed during a walkdown on Wednesday that the level of water in three of the ponds had fallen since the previous visit a few days earlier. At the time, the site was re-plenishing the three sprinkler ponds to return the water levels to normal. Today, the team conducted another walkdown of the sprinkler ponds and confirmed that the water levels of all ponds were within the operational limits. The IAEA experts are looking into the cause of the temporary water decline.

IAEA teams at Ukraine’s three other NPPs and the Chornobyl site report safe and secure operations of these nuclear facilities despite the continuation of the armed conflict. The IAEA conducted successful rotations of its teams at Chornobyl, and the Rivne, Khmelnitsky and South Ukraine NPPs earlier this week.

The IAEA today completed its 25th delivery of equipment and other items designed to enhance nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, providing medical equipment and consumables to the Chornobyl site. This delivery was made possible using extrabudgetary contributions from the European Commission.

Separately, the second delivery of spare parts and rubber products for the emergency diesel generators of the South Ukraine NPP, envisaged under arrangements agreed on 5 May between the IAEA, France and Ukraine’s Energoatom, arrived at the site this week. These spare parts are essential for the maintenance and functionality of the diesel generators, ensuring they would work if the site were to lose off-site power. The first delivery took place in June.

In total, the Agency has now facilitated deliveries of nuclear safety and security equipment of more than 6.8 million euros to different organizations in Ukraine since the start of the armed conflict as part of its overall assistance programme.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has completed drilling of ten groundwater wells, bringing the plant close to having a longer-term solution for the provision of cooling water to the shutdown reactors after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

Over 200 cubic meters of water can now be supplied to the sprinkler ponds that cool the ZNPP’s six reactors and spent fuel. The IAEA has been informed that the site intends to drill an additional well bringing the total to 11 wells which is hoped to provide the approximately 250 cubic metres of water per hour to maintain the cooling of the reactors and spent fuel pools in the current shutdown state. The ZNPP cooling pond remains intact, containing a large volume of water that can also provide cooling to the ZNPP’s shutdown reactors for many months.

IAEA experts continued to conduct walkdowns of the ZNPP this week. The team visited the main control rooms of units 2, 5 and 6 where they observed that units 2 and 5 remain in cold shutdown and unit 6 in hot shutdown. In addition, the team visited the emergency diesel generators for units 4 and 5 and performed walkdowns within the perimeter of the ZNPP. The team did not observe any heavy weapons during their walkdowns but confirmed that the previously reported mines remain in place.

Staffing levels of the plant continue to be a concern with a significant number of staff having left the ZNPP since the start of the armed conflict, including licensed operators from the main control rooms. IAEA experts were informed by the ZNPP that recruitment of additional staff from Russian nuclear power plants (NPPs) continues and that they are being trained and licensed under the Russian Federation’s regulations. The IAEA team continues to gather information on the number and qualifications of main control room operators to better understand the situation.

The IAEA experts continue to confirm that radiation levels at the ZNPP remain normal after performing radiation monitoring using the IAEA mobile backpack system. The monitoring results are published on the IAEA’s International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS). 

There has been no change to the status of off-site power to the ZNPP, with the site receiving electricity from the last remaining of four original 750 kilovolt (kV) lines and from one of the six original 330 kV lines connected to the Ukraine electricity grid. The IAEA team was given no information about the possible restoration of other high voltage lines.

Underling the potential dangers for nuclear security during the conflict in Ukraine, the IAEA experts have continued to hear numerous explosions some distance away from the ZNPP.

IAEA experts at the Rivne NPP also reported that a blackout occurred in the morning of 21 September in the nearby town of Varash – caused by the emergency shutdown of the 110 kV power line that supplies electricity to the town from the Rivne NPP. The plant management says this may have been caused by missile attacks in the region. Power was restored within one hour and there was no impact on the safe and secure operation of the Rivne NPP.

“These reports are yet another reminder of the potential nuclear safety and security risks faced by nuclear facilities and to the staff of the facilities during the military conflict in the country”, Director General Grossi said.

This week, IAEA teams at Ukraine’s other NPPs and the Chornobyl site report safe and secure operation of the nuclear facilities despite the continuation of the armed conflict. All the teams at the four sites are due to rotate over the next week.

Also in the past week, the Agency arranged two deliveries of equipment to Ukraine, bringing the total number of deliveries to 24 since the start of the armed conflict. With these deliveries, Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine NPPs, as well as USIE Izotop, received various items such as IT equipment, medical equipment and supplies as well as laboratory equipment and nuclear security related systems. The deliveries were funded by extrabudgetary contributions by Canada and Japan.