Engineers at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station have been drilling more wells at the site as part of efforts to find new sources of cooling water after the destruction of the downstream Kakhovka dam more than three months ago.

International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said that since last week, engineers had built another two groundwater wells to supply the sprinkler ponds that cool the six reactors and spent fuel, bringing the total of new wells to nine.

Together the wells pump around 200 cubic metres of water per hour into the sprinkler ponds, representing almost all the cooling needs of the six shutdown reactors.

The remainder of the water comes from the drainage system and clean water that is periodically discharged from the plant’s chemical water treatment facility.