On 12 September 2024, the IAEA monitoring mission visited one of the electric substations in Ukraine, which has a significant impact on the safety and stability of NPP operation and was damaged as a result of massive missile attacks by the russian federation on civilian infrastructure.
This visit marks the beginning of the practical implementation of the agreements reached during the meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on 3 September 2024 in Kyiv on the need to expand the IAEA's attention not only to the safety of nuclear power plants, where the Agency's experts have been permanently based since early 2023, but also to the state of safety-critical nuclear installations at electrical substations.
IAEA experts together with representatives of NNEGC «Energoatom», NPC "Ukrenergo" and SNRIU conducted a site visit and inspection, documented the damage sustained by the facility as a result of missile attacks, discussed the impact of these damages and losses on the safety of nuclear power plants in Ukraine and prepared a technical report to the IAEA Director General.
"Reliable external power supply is essential for NPP safety, as stated in the NPP safety analysis reports. Attacks on the power grid pose significant safety challenges to operating NPPs due to the rapid transients they cause in the external power supply. These transients are characterised by sudden and severe fluctuations in power supply, require immediate and accurate response from NPP operators, and therefore should be subject to additional attention of the IAEA", Head of SNRIU, Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh Korikov said and stressed the importance of expanding IAEA monitoring missions in Ukraine.
This is also emphasised by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who makes special efforts as a diplomat and politician to prevent nuclear accidents at NPPs in times of war.
The IAEA will continue to expand its assistance to Ukraine by assessing the safety of nuclear and radiation facilities, documenting operational events, the consequences of potential and actual damage on the safety of nuclear power plants, and the adequacy of protective measures to prevent external influences on the safety of nuclear power plants and technologically related infrastructure.
It should be noted that Zaporizhzhya NPP, which is temporarily occupied by russia, continues to consume electricity to meet its own needs from the Ukrainian power grid. To maintain the safety of ZNPP, a stable connection with the power system is one of the 7 "indispensable pillars of security". However, russian shelling often leads to damage to high-voltage power lines, partial or complete loss of ZNPP connection to the grid, which resulted in eight times during the occupation of ZNPP that backup diesel generators remained the only source of power.
The Protocols to the Geneva Conventions stipulate that military attacks on nuclear power plants and dams are unacceptable and violate humanitarian law, causing additional suffering to the civilian population. The Geneva Conventions were signed and ratified by the USSR, whose successor the russian federation considers itself to be. However, the aggressor country continues to cynically ignore both international law and resolutions of the UN General Assembly, the Board of Governors and the IAEA General Conference, while remaining a full member of the Agency, whose motto since its inception has been ‘Atom for Peace’. The joint efforts of the Agency's member states must stop the actions of the russian federation in nuclear blackmail and terrorism of civilian infrastructure.