Personnal at Ukraine’s besieged Zaphorizhzhia nuclear power plant continued to power down some of the plant’s reactors this week when a water leak was detected from a steam generator and amidst continued threats to the facility’s external power supply.
Plant personnel this week began transferring the facility’s unit 4 reactor from hot shutdown to cold shutdown following detection of a water leak at one of its four steam generators located in the containment of unit 4, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in an Aug. 10 statement.
The Unit 4 reactor will go into cold shutdown to determine the cause of the water leak and to conduct maintenance to repair the affected steam generator. There was no radiological release to the environment, the IAEA said. At the same time, over the next three days, plant personnel will move unit 6 to hot shutdown to continue steam production on site.
Unit 6 has been in cold shutdown since April 21, for inspection and maintenance of its safety systems, the IAEA says. The other units at ZNPP remain in cold shutdown.
On Aug. 4, the team visited the dry spent fuel storage facility, where they were able to verify the integrity of the fuel casks stored there.
On Aug. 8, the team visited the unit 2 main control room, emergency control room and other safety-related areas. They did not observe any mines or unusual objects in these areas, the IAEA said. However, in the turbine hall of unit 2, the team noted the presence of a number of military trucks parked in an area reserved for vehicle maintenance.
While the team did not observe mines or explosives in any new locations during the past week, they did confirm the presence of the mines previously observed on July 23.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors last week gained access to the rooftops of two reactors of concern at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and found no mines or explosives, the agency said Aug. 4.
Inspectors had asked for access to the roof area of reactors three and four repeatedly but were denied entry to inspect for explosives by occupying Russian forces until Friday.
From that vantage, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel were able to visually inspect the turbine halls at the nuclear plant and found no explosives, Grossi said. The team will continue its requests to visit the roofs of the other four units at the plant.
“I welcome the news that IAEA experts have finally been granted this additional access at the site. Timely, independent and objective reporting of facts on the ground is crucial to continue the IAEA’s efforts to support nuclear safety and security during the military conflict in the country,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
Since Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago, the IAEA and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration have supported Ukrainian efforts to prevent a nuclear accident at the plant. Artillery dueling and other combat operations near the plant have threatened the plant’s external power supply multiple times, which it requires to continue cooling its nuclear reactors.