This is the IAEA chief’s third visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. A short meeting, handshakes – and the delegates immediately get down to business as they head into the meeting room. Nuclear power plant safety issues are once again on the agenda.
The reason for the meeting was the consequences of the explosion at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. A sharp change in the water level in the Dnieper could have the most serious consequences for a nuclear power plant.
Now you can clearly see how the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir has changed. Now you can walk, if not along the bottom of the channel, then near it. For nuclear power plant cooling system pumps, this is too low a level. Therefore, in artificially created ponds behind sluices, the so-called shandors, the water level is maintained at a height of 16 meters.
The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, personally inspects the walls of the pumping stations, cut by fragments of shells. These are new traces of Ukrainian artillery strikes. If the shells hit the building, the pumps would shut down and other important nuclear power plant systems would shut down with them.
Not only water resources, but also technical installations were threatened. This is another part of the cooling system – spray pools. And if the bottom of the pool is damaged, the water will quickly leave and the power plant, in simple terms, will overheat. This can lead to sad consequences. You don’t need to be an expert to figure this out.
The breached water pipes only confirm that the bombardments are continuing, contrary to statements from Kyiv. However, even in such conditions, Russian specialists managed to ensure the stable operation of the station, albeit at the lowest capacity.
In the past year alone, due to shelling from the Ukrainian side, the station has been shut down seven times. Now the nuclear power plant is working normally. Two generators are being repaired, the others are in cold shutdown. And only one, the fifth PSU, is in hot shutdown mode, that is, it generates power, but only for its own needs.
According to the assurances of the experts, the station today maintains a normal radioactive background. People’s lives and the normal operation of the nuclear power plant are now threatened only by Ukrainian bombing.
“What causes anxiety even under these conditions? The first is the pressure on the team, it continues emotionally. The whistling of shells and rockets does not bring optimism to the workers and their families. Secondly, we understand that at any time the station may come under targeted attack,” said Alexei Likhachev, director general of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.
Rafael Grossi spoke more than once about the principles of the IAEA from the gallery of the United Nations Assembly and recalled them publicly today.
“Now there is no longer any question of launching the station at full capacity. I hope one day it will happen,” Grossi said.
Rosenergoatom assured that Russia has fulfilled all the conditions, but Kyiv diligently does not notice this.
“All the principles that Mr. Grossi proclaimed, we have already implemented them anyway. As early as September 1 last year, this phrase was uttered by Grossi that one should never shoot at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, without anything or under any pretext. There has never been a single type of shock military equipment on the territory of the nuclear power plant, ”explains Renat Karchaa, adviser to the general director of the Rosenergoatom enterprise.
At the end of the visit, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, again noted that, despite the difficult situation, the specialists of the international agency will continue to work at the station and try to contact the leaders of Kiev. However, no statement regarding an impending ceasefire from Ukraine was made at the final press conference.
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