IAEA experts based at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) were required to stay indoors yesterday morning after hearing loud bursts of gunfire from near the main administrative building where their office is located, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
The ZNPP informed the IAEA staff members that a nearby "drone threat" had made it necessary to postpone the team's planned activities at the site, the latest incident highlighting persistent risks to nuclear safety and security during the military conflict.
The IAEA team remained in the administrative building after the plant-wide shelter order was announced.
In addition, the IAEA team has continued to hear explosions and gunfire at varying distances from the plant almost every day during the past week.
"What was once virtually unimaginable - evidence of military action in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility - has become a near daily occurrence and a regular part of life at Europe's largest nuclear power plant. From a nuclear safety perspective, this is clearly not a sustainable situation. The IAEA remains committed to doing everything we can to prevent a nuclear accident during this tragic war," Director General Grossi said.
Despite the regular sound of military activities in the area, the IAEA experts have continued to conduct walkdowns across the plant to monitor and assess nuclear safety and security. In recent days, for example, the team visited the ZNPP's low-level solid radioactive waste storage facility, as well as other installations at the sprawling industrial site.
In meetings earlier this week, the experts discussed with the ZNPP the staffing situation at the plant as well as various maintenance activities, including to some of the safety systems.
At Ukraine's other nuclear power plants (NPPs) - Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine - IAEA teams have also continued to monitor nuclear safety and security. All three plants are still producing electricity, although some units are in planned outage while others occasionally have to reduce output.
At the Khmelnytskyy NPP, for example, one reactor remained in outage for maintenance and refuelling, while the power production of the second unit was reduced at the request of the grid operator for 36 hours earlier this week. At the Rivne NPP, a second unit was placed in outage for maintenance and refuelling, while the power production of a third was reduced at the request of the grid operator for a few days this week.
The South Ukraine NPP also experienced power variations this week. The IAEA team at the plant was informed that seven drones were detected 2 km east of the site on 17 April, also a frequent occurrence during the conflict. Likewise, the teams - particularly at the Chornobyl site and the South Ukraine NPP - have continued to hear air raid alarms most days.
The IAEA teams at the Rivne, South Ukraine and Chornobyl sites all rotated over the past week.
As part of the IAEA's technical nuclear safety and security assistance to Ukraine, the Hydrometeorological Centre and the Hydrometeorological organizations of the State Emergency Services of Ukraine received radiation detection and measurement equipment, and associated reference sources procured with funding from Austria and the United States. It was the 131st delivery organized by the IAEA since the start of the conflict.
