Employees of the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP) have begun to implement that part of the plan for a potential transfer to generation mode that can be implemented before the end of hostilities in the region, ZNPP Communications Director Evgenia Yashina told TASS.
“In accordance with the instructions of Rosatom Director General [Alexey] Likhachev, specialists have developed a comprehensive action plan to prepare the Zaporizhia NPP for a potential transfer to electricity generation mode. It includes several stages of implementation. The part that does not depend on the end of hostilities is now being implemented in a planned and methodical manner,” she said.
She clarified that this, first of all, involves obtaining all the necessary licences for the operation of power units and the work of personnel, carrying out repair and restoration work, as well as maintaining the qualifications of station employees.
She emphasised that “a fundamentally important and unconditional condition for making any decision on the physical launch of power units and the start of generation is a complete cessation of hostilities and the receipt of guarantees for the safety of the station from all interested parties”. Currently, Yashina stressed, there is no such political prerequisite. She added that all current activities of the ZNPP team are aimed at maintaining the station in proper technical condition and preserving its professional personnel.
In February, Likhachev told TASS that, on his orders, a large programme for commissioning ZNPP was being prepared. Later, he reported that Rosatom had already prepared a comprehensive plan for the phased commissioning of the plant, which was being approved by the Russian government. At the same time, he emphasised that the plan can only be implemented in the absence of military threats: both direct attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and sabotage.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it has received further details about the dam constructed to secure cooling water for the systems needed to maintain the reactor units ZNPP, which are in cold shutdown.
The IAEA team based at the ZNPP has received updates regarding the location of the newly built dam and its purpose, which is to isolate one of the ZNPP’s channels from the plant’s cooling pond. The channel in question supplies service water for cooling several plant systems, such as the main unit transformers, required to safely maintain the ZNPP’s six reactors, which have been in cold shutdown since April 2024.
ZNPP confirmed that the dam will help maintain the water level in the channel at about 14 metres, which is 2 metres above the threshold at which the service water pumps would no longer be able to operate. In addition, the ZNPP continues to use groundwater wells on site to provide cooling water for its safety systems to cool the reactor cores and used fuel pools.
The IAEA team continues to request access to the newly constructed dam but this has not yet been permitted due to security concerns. “Our access to this dam is essential to assess the cooling water situation which is crucial given the fragile nuclear safety situation at the ZNPP,” said Director General Rafael Grossi.
The cooling water situation is compounded by the fact that the ZNPP remains reliant on one single off-site power line to receive the external electricity it needs to cool its six reactors and their spent fuel, almost four months after it lost the connection to its last 330 kV back-up power line. The IAEA team continues to follow-up on maintenance work on the safety systems and the site’s electrical systems and equipment, including the backup power transformers.
