On 13 March 2024, Head of SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh Korikov met with Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) Christopher T. Hanson. The heads of nuclear regulators of Ukraine and the United States discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP occupied by russia and topical issues of bilateral cooperation within the framework of the 36th Annual Information Conference of the US NRC, which is taking place in Washington, DC, USA.

Oleh Korikov stressed that the russian federation, which has been occupying Zaporizhzhya NPP for more than two years, continues to cynically violate the fundamental safety principles of the IAEA and international law.

“The degradation of nuclear and radiation safety continues to deepen, and further occupation of the Ukrainian NPP will only complicate the situation. Today, we have unqualified personnel at the industrial site, the militarisation of the plant continues, and the plant is losing power from the Ukrainian power grid due to shelling by the occupiers. We understand that if ZNPP is not returned under the control of Ukraine, the number of operational events will only increase and they will pose a potential threat of accidents with radiation consequences,” SNRIU Chairman noted.

He added that russia continues to ignore and fails to comply with the requirements of the General Conference resolution and four resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors.

“In my opinion, only tough measures can change this situation. The aggressor country should be deprived of all rights and privileges in the IAEA, and any cooperation with russian nuclear companies should be terminated. Political and economic sanctions are necessary,” said Oleh Korikov.

During the meeting, the Ukrainian side presented a plan to restore the safety level of nuclear facilities at Zaporizhzhya NPP after its de-occupation.

The SNRIU Chairman also informed about the situation at the Institute of Metrology (Kharkiv), which was subjected to shelling by the russian federation.

The heads of the nuclear regulators of Ukraine and the United States discussed the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on Nuclear and Radiation Safety. Oleh Korikov noted that, thanks to the assistance of the US NRC, a project to upgrade the IT equipment of the Ukrainian nuclear regulator has already been successfully implemented, and one of the next will be a project to ensure an adequate level of informatisation, security, digitalisation and digital transformation of the SNRIU.

Among the priority areas of cooperation, the parties considered improving regulatory approaches and strengthening the SNRIU and SSTC NRS capacity to further review the results of the NPP site selection process, taking into account the possible deployment of small modular reactors.