According to Ukrainian intelligence, russia is preparing for another series of strikes on the Ukrainian nuclear energy infrastructure: switchgear at nuclear power plants and transmission substations of the united energy system of Ukraine, which are critical for the safe operation of nuclear facilities. This is stated in the letter of Head of SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh Korikov dated 21 September 2024 addressed to the leadership of the European Commission, European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG), the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), nuclear regulators of the USA, the UK, Canada, Finland, Poland, Norway, Germany, France, Lithuania, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia.
“The destruction of mentioned critical substations brings the number of nuclear safety risks, particularly: operational events, direct and deferred equipment damage, higher probability of incidents and even accidents, with conditions, which were not considered before, and hard to predict”, SNRIU Chairman emphasised.
As a result of russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector, all Ukrainian NPPs were already fully blacked out on 22 November 2022, and the attacks on 22 March 2024 and 26 August 2024, when the russians deliberately attacked critical energy nodes, resulted in emergency disconnection of several nuclear power units.
He stressed that reliable and stable off-site power supply was outlined by IAEA DG at a special meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors on 2 March 2022, among Seven Pillars. It also prescribed by IAEA Specific Safety Requirements SSR-2/1 (Rev. 1) “Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design” Requirement 41, and in more details described in IAEA Specific Safety Guide SSG-34 Design of Electrical Power Systems for Nuclear Power Plants and IAEA-TECDOC-1770 Design Provisions for Withstanding Station Blackout at Nuclear Power Plants.
In addition, the importance of having a reliable and stable power supply is emphasised in the IAEA Director General's Report on the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident of 11 March 2011.
“On September 12 IAEA carried out their first visit to an electrical substation in Ukraine, as part of its work to assess the status of the electrical grid infrastructure essential to nuclear safety, and we are looking forward on continuation of this paramount activity in closest future”, said Oleh Korikov.
The head of the Ukrainian regulator called on international partners to take a consolidated position, to take real steps together with all states that respect the UN Charter and the principles of peaceful use of nuclear energy in order to put pressure on russia and prevent the most negative scenarios at Ukrainian nuclear facilities.