No one stands to gain from further deterioration of nuclear safety and security, says agency chief
A process had been set in motion to help restore external electricity to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following frequent contact with both sides in recent weeks to address the site’s latest loss of offsite power during the military conflict, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said on 9 October.
“Following intensive consultations, the process leading to the re-establishment of offsite power – through the Dniprovska and Ferosplavna-1 lines – has started,” Grossi said.
“While it will still take some time before the grid connection of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been restored, the two sides have engaged with us in a constructive way to achieve this important objective for the sake of nuclear safety and security. No one stands to gain from a further deterioration in this regard,” he said.
The IAEA said since the plant last month once again lost all access to the grid, Grossi has been engaging with Russia and Ukraine on concrete proposals aimed at enabling the plant to receive the offsite power it needs to cool its six shutdown reactors and its spent fuel.
The agency said the focus has been on creating the necessary security conditions for repairs to be carried out on the damaged sections of the 750 kilovolt (kV) Dniprovska and the 330 kV Ferosplavna-1 power lines, located on opposite sides of the frontline near the nuclear plant.
For the tenth time during the conflict, Zaporizhzhia lost its connection to the grid on 23 September when its last remaining 750 kV power line was cut, almost five months after the last 330 kV backup line was also disconnected. Both sides blamed the damage on military activities.
For more than two weeks, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has therefore been forced to rely on emergency diesel generators to power its cooling pumps, further challenging an already precarious nuclear safety and security situation at the site.
At the plant, seven emergency diesel generators are currently operating and another 13 are on standby. The plant continues to alternate them to produce the electricity it requires, including also for the reactor safety systems.
The IAEA team at the Zaporizhzhia site continues to confirm that there has been no temperature increase within the coolant in the reactors or the spent fuel pool, indicating that the fuel continues to be cooled effectively.
Earlier this week, the team conducted a check to observe the status of the emergency diesel generators that were in standby mode at the time. The team also confirmed that the essential service sprinkler ponds – which provide cooling to the reactors and the spent fuel pools – were operating as usual. Radiation levels at the site remain normal, the team reported.
The team has continued to report military activities at various distances from the site. On Tuesday evening, the team members heard five explosions one after the other, occurring close to the site and shaking windows in their building.
The IAEA teams based at the other nuclear sites in Ukraine – Khmelnitski, Rivne, South Ukraine and Chernobyl – also report military activities on most days.
