IAEA experts see tests of generators at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Friday, 28 March 2025

The six-unit Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which has been under Russian military control since March 2022, has lost access to external power on a number of occasions during the war and had to rely on back-up diesel generators for essential safety purposes until external power was restored.

In his latest update, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: "As the off-site power situation at ZNPP is still highly precarious, it is very important that these diesel generators can immediately start up without any issues. Our experts were this week able to confirm that the diesel generators that were tested can fulfil their function if the plant once again were to lose its external connections. Continued vigilance in this respect is necessary."

Six mobile diesel generators were installed by Ukraine after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, the IAEA said, with four connected to reactor units and two used outside the nuclear power plant site. Three more were added last year and are located next to reactor unit turbine buildings but are yet to be connected. The IAEA team witnessed the testing of one of the emergency diesel generators and one of the new mobile diesel generators.

The IAEA said that it had asked about reports of a spillage of diesel fuel, and had been told it was "fake" and that the plant has enough fuel in storage for a minimum 10 days of operation of its diesel generators. "The IAEA has requested access to the fuel tanks to independently assess the situation there first-hand," the update says.

"Over the past week, the IAEA team has also continued to monitor maintenance of some of the ZNPP’s safety systems and discussed emergency preparedness and response arrangements with the site. Team members conducted a walkdown of the site’s waterworks facilities, and of the reactor building of unit 4, where the team observed traces of dried boric acid in some rooms as well as a defective seal on a pump," it adds.

The IAEA team at the Zaporizhzhia plant, and the teams at Ukraine's three operating nuclear power plants and Chernobyl, have all reported continuing to hear military activity and air raids over the past week.

The background
 

During the war, which has now lasted more than three years, the IAEA has had teams of experts at all of Ukraine's nuclear power plants as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has all its units in cold shutdown. The agency has produced regular updates on the safety and security situation at all of the plants, and seeks to ensure that core safety and security principles are adhered to - such as not firing at, or from, a nuclear power plant, or using it as a military base.

Ukraine's position since the start of the war has been that the only way to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhzhia plant is for it to be returned to Ukraine. Russia says that it is meeting all security and safety requirements and has started the process of getting Russian regulatory approvals for possible restarting of units in the future (all six units are currently in cold shutdown).

The IAEA has not attributed blame to either side during the war, with Director General Grossi explaining in a press conference at the United Nations in April last year that this was particularly the case with drones, saying "we are not commentators. We are not political speculators or analysts, we are an international agency of inspectors. And in order to say something like that, we must have proof, indisputable evidence, that an attack, or remnants of ammunition or any other weapon, is coming from a certain place. And in this case it is simply impossible".