External power has been restored to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) two days after it lost all access to off-site electricity in the latest incident highlighting the precarious nuclear safety and security situation at the facility, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has said.
Both the ZNPP’s external power lines, a 750 kV line and a 330 kV back-up line, were repaired, and reconnection started on 5 November. At around 22:00 the 750 kV power supply to all six units of the ZNPP had been re-established, and the eight operating emergency diesel generators were turned off and put into standby mode, Grossi added, citing information he had received from the team of IAEA experts present at the plant.
The 750 kV line is therefore now once again providing the electricity the ZNPP’s six reactors need for cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions, including unit 4 which had earlier lost its connection to the 750 kV line in a landmine explosion in late October. The 330 kV external power line to the nearby thermal power plant switchyard is also available to provide back-up power to ZNPP.
The 750 kV line was disconnected from the entire ZNPP site following shelling late on 2 November and the 330 kV line was also lost just a few hours later, with both sustaining physical damage around 50-60 kilometres from the plant in Ukrainian-controlled territory. The ZNPP’s emergency diesel generators automatically started generating back-up power until external power was restored. At that time, the plant had fuel for around 15 days of diesel generator operations. The IAEA team has been informed that supplies of diesel fuel continue to be delivered to the site, and plant staff plan to refill the tanks of all the diesel generators. There is no change in the operational status of all units. Units 5 and 6 are in semi-hot shutdown providing steam to the site and arrangements are being made to further heat-up both units to a hot shutdown state. The other four units remain in cold shutdown.
It should be noted that the IAEA, which still formally recognises the plant as being Ukrainian, largely depends for its information on events at ZNPP on Ukrainian nuclear utility Energoatom. Russia took control of the plant in March and following a referendum on the Zaporoizhzhia region in September, which apparently overwhelming voted in favour of joining the Russian Federation, Russian nuclear utility Rosenergoatom took full control of the station.
Consequently, very different narratives about the loss of power at ZNPP were reported by Ukrainian and Russian sources. Ukraine’s Energoatom said on 2 November that the plant had lost power due to shelling (which they attributed to Russia) prompting all 20 diesel generators to be switched on. “Fuel for the operation of diesel generators in the mode of complete blackout at ZNPP will last for 15 days. The countdown has begun. Due to the occupation of the plant and the interference of Rosatom representatives in its work, the possibilities for Ukraine to maintain ZNPP in a safe mode are significantly limited,” Energoatom said. “Such actions are another attempt… to reconnect the nuclear plant to the Russian energy system. In the near future, they will try to repair and connect the communication lines of the ZNPP in the direction of the temporarily occupied Crimea and Donbass.”
However, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the Zaporozhye region administration Vladimir Rogov on 3 November, reporting the reconnection of the 750 kV and 330 kV transmission lines, denied that they had been damaged by any shelling. “The Kiev regime, deliberately, without warning, de-energised the Zaporizhzhia NPP a few days ago, in an attempt to damage the nuclear power plant, but our specialists coped and did not allow an emergency situation to develop,” he said. “They say that they have repaired the power lines, but there was nothing to repair there. They were deliberately turned off in order to cause damage to the plant and create in fact an emergency situation.” He added that Ukraine's actions make it difficult to predict how long the NPP will receive energy through those power lines. “How long it will last is a big question,” he said but gave assurances that “fuel reserves for diesel generators are naturally replenished”.
“The repeated power outages all too clearly demonstrate the extremely serious nuclear safety and security situation this major nuclear power plant is facing,” said Grossi. “So far, the brave staff of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have always managed to maintain the safe operation of the six units. But it can’t go on like this. I have repeatedly called for the urgent establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to prevent a nuclear accident. We can’t afford to lose any more time. We must act before it is too late,” Grossi stressed. In recent weeks, he has engaged in high-level talks with both Ukraine and Russia aimed at agreeing and implementing such a zone around the ZNPP as soon as possible.
A new team of four IAEA experts arrived at ZNPP on 3 November to replace the four experts who had been on the site for the past four weeks, Grossi reported earlier. It was the second rotation of IAEA nuclear safety, security and safeguards experts since Grossi visited the facility on 1 September to establish the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia (ISAMZ).
Separately on 3 November, Grossi said inspectors had completed their in-field verification activities at three locations in Ukraine at the request of the Government of Ukraine. Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the Agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations.
Ukraine’s written requests for the IAEA to send teams of inspectors were issued after the Russian Federation made allegations about activities at the three locations – the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro.
IAEA said inspectors were able to carry out all planned activities and were given unfettered access to the locations. The inspectors also collected environmental samples for analysis.
Meanwhile, on 6 November Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed Ukrainian shelling of the plant had resumed. An official representative of the Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said that during the day, 15 large-calibre shells were fired at Energodar and the territory near the NPP. He said the shelling was conducted from villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which are under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and return fire destroyed a Ukrainian Msta-B howitzer and two vehicles.
