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Update 11 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine
20/2022
Vienna, Austria

Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that Russian forces had taken control of the site of the country's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), but that the nuclear power plant continued to be operated by its regular staff and there had been no release of radioactive material, Director General Rafael Mario Grossi said.

Ukrainian counterparts informed the IAEA that a projectile overnight had hit a training building in the vicinity of one of the plant's reactor units, causing a localized fire that was later extinguished.

The safety systems of the plant's six reactors had not been affected and there has been no release of radioactive material.

Radiation monitoring systems at the site are fully functional.

However, the operator has reported that the situation remains very challenging and therefore it has not yet been possible to access the whole site to assess that all safety systems are fully functional.

Of the plant's reactor units, Unit 1 is shut down for maintenance, Units 2 and 3 have undergone a controlled shut down, Unit 4 is operating at 60 percent power and Units 5 and 6 are being held "in reserve" in low power mode.

Two people were reported injured.

The IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) has been put in full response mode due to the events at Zaporizhzhia NPP, Director General Grossi said. The IEC will be manned around the clock to continuously receive, assess and disseminate information about developments.

The Director General said he remained gravely concerned about the situation at Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant. The main priority was to ensure the safety and security of the plant, its power supply and the people who operate it, he said.

"I'm extremely concerned about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and what happened there during the night. Firing shells in the area of a nuclear power plant violates the fundamental principle that the physical integrity of nuclear facilities must be maintained and kept safe at all time," he said.

The Director General held a press conference on the situation at the plant at 10:30 CET

Update 10 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine
19/2022
Vienna, Austria

Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that the site of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) had been shelled overnight and Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi immediately spoke with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as well as the country's national nuclear regulator and operator about the serious situation.

Director General Grossi appealed for a halt of the use of force and warned of severe danger if any reactors were hit. He is expected to hold a press conference at 10:30 CET on Friday.

The Ukraine regulatory authority said a fire at the site had not affected "essential" equipment and plant personnel were taking mitigatory actions. There was no reported change in radiation levels at the plant, it said.

The IAEA is putting its Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) in full response mode due to the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, Director General Grossi said.

The IAEA continues to closely monitor developments at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and remains in constant contact with Ukraine. It will continue to provide regular updates on the situation

Update 9 - IAEA Director General Statement on the situation in Ukraine
18/2022
Vienna, Austria

Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that a large number of Russian tanks and infantry "broke through the block-post" to the town of Enerhodar, a few kilometres from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

In an urgent letter to the Director General, the Ukraine regulatory authority added that Russian infantry troops were moving directly towards the site of Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant. "The battle is going on in the town of Enerhodar and on the road to the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) site," it said, adding that the situation was "critical".

Director General Grossi appealed for an immediate halt to the use of force at Enerhodar and called on the military forces operating there to refrain from violence near the nuclear power plant. He said the IAEA continues to consult with Ukraine and others with a view to provide maximum possible assistance to the country as it seeks to maintain nuclear safety and security in the current difficult circumstances

Update 8 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine
17/2022
Vienna, Austria

Ukraine has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that staff who have been kept at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) since Russian military forces took control of the site a week ago were facing "psychological pressure and moral exhaustion", Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, stressing that they must be allowed to rest and rotate so that their crucial work can be carried out safely and securely.

This was part of a joint appeal to the IAEA Director General, received today, from the Ukraine Government, regulatory authority and the national operator which added that personnel at the Chornobyl site "have limited opportunities to communicate, move and carry out full-fledged maintenance and repair work".

They also confirmed to the Director General that Ukraine has lost regulatory control over all the facilities in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, and asked the IAEA to undertake measures "in order to reestablish legal regulation of safety of nuclear facilities and installations within the Chernobyl NPP site and within the Exclusion Zone". The Director General said earlier this week that he was conducting consultations in order to address a request from the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) for immediate assistance to ensure the safety of the Chornobyl NPP and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

In a separate technical update to the IAEA today, the SNRIU reported that power from one of the two off-site power transmission lines supplying electricity to the site was lost overnight. This power line does not provide power to safety-related equipment. Neverthless, due to this loss of power, there were difficulties in carrying out routine maintenance and repair of some safety-critical equipment, SNRIU said.

Due to time elapsed since the 1986 Chornobyl accident, the heat load of the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water contained in the pool is sufficient to maintain effective heat removal without the need for electrical supply.

Furthermore, the site has back-up emergency diesel generators available should there be a total loss of power.

The event highlights once again why Director General Grossi has repeatedly stressed that any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine's nuclear power plants must be avoided.

"I remain gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, especially about the country's nuclear power plants, which must be able to continue operating without any safety or security threats," he said. "Any accident caused as a result of the military conflict could have extremely serious consequences for people and the environment, in Ukraine and beyond."

The Chornobyl NPP has been undergoing decommissioning since the accident and significant amounts of nuclear material remain in various facilities at the site in the form of spent fuel and other radioactive waste.

At a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on Wednesday, Director General Grossi stressed the "utmost importance that the staff working at the Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant are able to do their job safely and effectively, and that their personal wellbeing is guaranteed by those who have taken control". Operating staff at all of Ukraine's nuclear facilities must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure, he added in his Board statement.

Ukraine also has 15 operational nuclear reactors at four sites in the country, providing roughly half of its electricity, which SNRIU reported today continue to operate normally.

The IAEA continues to closely monitor developments in Ukraine, with a special focus on the safety and security of its nuclear power reactors. The IAEA remains in constant contact with its counterpart and will continue to provide regular updates on the situation in Ukraine.

Update 7 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine
16/2022
Vienna, Austria

Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that the same staff had been working at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) since Russian forces last week took control of the site of the 1986 nuclear accident, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, expressing his growing concern about their continued wellbeing and ability to do their jobs safely and effectively.

In a regular update to the IAEA, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) said it maintained communications with the Chornobyl site - whose personnel it said were carrying out their duties under "supervision" - and that no operation involving nuclear material had been conducted there since 24 February.

The Chornobyl NPP, located in an Exclusion Zone, has been undergoing decommissioning since the accident and significant amounts of nuclear material remain in various facilities at the site in the form of spent fuel and other radioactive waste.

"It is of utmost importance that the staff working at the Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant are able to do their job safely and effectively, and that their personal wellbeing is guaranteed by those who have taken control," Director General Grossi told the IAEA Board of Governors during a meeting in Vienna today on the situation in Ukraine.

Operating staff at all of Ukraine's nuclear facilities - which also include 15 operational reactors at four sites - must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure, he added.

The Director General has repeatedly stressed that any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine's nuclear power plants must be avoided.

In today's update, SNRIU said it maintained communications with the country's nuclear power plants, which it said continued to operate as before. Radiation levels remained normal at all sites and there had been no reports of nuclear or radiological incidents, it said. Of Ukraine's 15 reactors, more than half were operating at full capacity while others were undergoing scheduled maintenance or held "in reserve", it added.

IAEA Member States feed information from automated radiation monitoring stations directly into the IAEA International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS). The IAEA on 1 March lost contact with such stations at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest of Ukraine's nuclear sites with six out of its 15 reactors, and today stopped receiving the same kind of data from another plant, the South Ukrainian NPP, with three units.

However, SNRIU later informed the IAEA that contact with the monitoring stations at the South Ukrainian NPP had been restored, saying the temporary loss of transmission to the IAEA was due to technical reasons and not related to military operations. Ukrainian specialists were seeking to determine the cause of the lost data transfer from the Zaporizhzhia NPP and to restore it, SNRIU added.

The IAEA continues to closely monitor developments in Ukraine, with a special focus on the safety and security of its nuclear power reactors. The IAEA remains in constant contact with its counterpart and will continue to provide regular updates on the situation in Ukraine.