Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi this week informed the annual Member States gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its expanding efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict in Ukraine, saying the IAEA had deployed more than 140 support and assistance missions to the country over the past two years.
"As the war in Ukraine has continued, so has our support to help maintain the safety and security of its nuclear facilities. Our assistance has grown and adapted. For example, we are taking a more proactive stance to monitoring those electrical substations that are essential in providing a stable electricity supply to Ukraine's nuclear power plants, which is critical for maintaining nuclear safety," Director General Grossi said in Monday's opening statement to the General Conference, attended by senior officials from the IAEA's 178 Member States.
Two years after the IAEA established its presence at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the nuclear safety and security situation at the site remains precarious, he told delegates, adding: "Regular explosions, drone attacks, gunfire and repeated interruptions of external power supply, among other challenges, increase the risk of a nuclear accident."
At the ZNPP this week, the IAEA team has continued to hear explosions at various distances, including several close to the site, but no damage to the plant was reported.
Separately, the team was informed by the ZNPP that two power lines supplying the nearby city of Enerhodar had been damaged by unspecified military activities on Tuesday, prompting the use of diesel generators to operate the pumping station for tap water - including to the ZNPP - as well as other "vital" facilities in the city. The lines were re-connected later in the week and the event had no impact on nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP, which continued to receive off-site power from the last remaining 750 (kilovolt) kV and 330 kV power lines.
On Tuesday, the IAEA team observed an emergency exercise conducted by the ZNPP. The simulated exercise scenario included a loss of coolant accident in the unit 1 reactor caused by a fictitious large earthquake, followed by a loss of all off-site power and the failure of all three of the unit's emergency diesel generators. A secondary aspect of the exercise scenario simulated a fire in the ZNPP's training centre and injuries to two personnel, which required an evacuation of the training centre and the response of the fire brigade and ambulance.
The IAEA team, observing the exercise from the temporary emergency centre and the training centre, reported that the ZNPP noted an appropriate response of participating staff as well as equipment reliability. The ZNPP also identified opportunities for improvement, including in the communication between the exercise players related to plant data about the accident and the reporting of personnel contamination monitoring.
The IAEA staff continued to conduct walkdowns across the site, including to the pumping station of the unit 5 reactor where they discussed the operational status of the pumps considering the decline in the water level of the ZNPP cooling pond, which has fallen 2.2 metres since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in mid-2023. In the ZNPP's current shutdown status, the cooling water provided by 11 wells dug after the dam was destroyed remains sufficient for nuclear safety and security.
The IAEA teams present at the Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the Chornobyl site reported that nuclear safety and security is being maintained despite the effects of the ongoing conflict, including air raid alarms on several days over the past week.
The IAEA team at the South Ukraine NPP reported that several drones were flying at distances between 1.5 and 6 km from the plant on three separate nights over the past week. No damage to the plant or any casualties were reported. The IAEA team was required to shelter on two of these nights, including late on Wednesday when drones and gunfire were heard.
The IAEA teams deployed at Khmelnytskyy and at South Ukraine NPPs both conducted walkdowns of the on-site emergency response centres and were briefed on their current operational preparedness and needs.
Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate informed the IAEA that the subcritical Neutron Source installation, located in the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT), was shelled on 14 September 2024, but did not suffer damage. This nuclear research facility located in north-eastern Ukraine was already heavily damaged in the conflict's first year, but without any indication of radiological release or diversion of declared nuclear material.
The IAEA continued to deliver on its comprehensive programme of assistance to help Ukraine maintain nuclear safety and security. With a total of 66 deliveries since the start of the armed conflict, equipment worth over €11 million has so far reached different organizations in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, the Chornobyl site received 550 beds to improve the living conditions of its staff, the third such delivery under the IAEA medical assistance programme. Ukraine's Ministry of Energy received several shipments of equipment and supplies to help the energy sector ensure reliable power supplies to the Ukrainian NPPs. The Rivne NPP and Ukraine's VostGok uranium mining and processing plant received equipment to help them enhance nuclear security at their facilities. These deliveries were funded by contributions from Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
In addition, the IAEA has been coordinating a series of training sessions for psychologists working at Ukrainian NPPs, drawing on local expertise to ensure sustainable mental health support is established at the national level for NPP staff. The training sessions began last month as part of the IAEA's medical programme and are supported with funds from Japan.
