The director common of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog stated Monday he was en route to Ukraine to assess the scenario on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after a dam breach depleted water ranges in the reservoir it makes use of to cool reactors and spent nuclear gasoline.
The director, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and current a plan for help in the aftermath of floods unleashed by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam final week. The breach of the dam despatched water from the Dnipro River coursing downstream and dramatically decreased the amount of water in the Kakhovka reservoir.
Mr. Grossi stated over the weekend that whereas there was no speedy menace to the water provides on the Zaporizhzhia plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog was urgently looking for recent knowledge about depleting water ranges in the reservoir.
He stated there have been discrepancies between the water stage readings taken by Ukrainian officers upstream of the Kakhovka dam, and the readings that had been taken on the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is subsequent to the reservoir and is underneath Russian management. Ukraine controls the western banks of the reservoir, whereas Russia holds elements of the jap financial institution.
At least 14 individuals have died because of the dam catastrophe, which has additionally brought on widespread environmental harm and left tons of of hundreds of individuals with out entry to clear ingesting water. The drop in the reservoir’s water stage additionally presents the most recent threat to the nuclear plant, the most important in Europe, which was seized by Russian troops close to the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February final yr.
Even although the nuclear plant has not been producing electrical energy for a number of months now, “it still needs access to water and power for cooling and other essential safety and security functions and to avoid the risk of a potential fuel meltdown and release of radioactive material,” the I.A.E.A. said in a statement on Sunday.
Water to cool the plant’s six reactors and carry out different vital security features is provided through a pond on the power’s grounds that’s fed by the reservoir. The pond, which is greater than two miles lengthy, greater than a mile vast and round 50 ft deep, accommodates sufficient water to meet the plant’s wants for “several months, ” Mr. Grossi stated. But it additionally wants to be supplemented with reservoir water, which implies correct monitoring of the reservoir’s water stage is essential.
Mr. Grossi stated that there’s a discrepancy of round six ft between water stage readings taken on the thermal energy plant on the nuclear facility’s grounds and readings taken elsewhere on the reservoir.
Inspectors from the I.A.E.A who’ve been stationed on the plant since final yr want entry to the thermal plant to perceive the explanation for the distinction, Mr. Grossi stated. Ukrainian employees proceed to function the plant however safety and entry is managed by Russian troops.
Five of the plant’s six reactors are in chilly shutdown mode, the most secure state of operation, whereas the sixth stays in sizzling shutdown to produce steam to assist processes that contribute to security on the location, the I.A.E.A. stated in its assertion on Sunday. That appeared to contradict an earlier assertion from Ukraine’s state nuclear firm, which stated that the final reactor nonetheless producing power on the plant had been put right into a “cold shutdown” — a state in which it not generates electrical energy — as a security precaution after the destruction of the dam threatened its water provide.
The cooling pond has turn into much more essential for sustaining the soundness of the plant for the reason that dam was breached, and Mr. Grossi stated final week that nothing ought to be completed to harm it.
Over the previous yr, shelling has lower exterior energy provides to the plant and in addition hit an space the place spent gasoline is saved. Mr. Grossi has repeatedly warned of the potential for nuclear disaster on the plant.
In addition, Kyiv’s forces have lately launched a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine that raises the opportunity of navy confrontation in the plant’s neighborhood.
