ZAPORIJIA. Thursday, September 1, IAEA experts arrived at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. They will remain there until September 4 or 5. “The physical integrity of the plant has been violated,” the IAEA said.
[Mis à jour le 1er septembre 2022 à 21h57] In Ukraine, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, now under Russian control, is regularly targeted by bombardments, raising fears of a risk of nuclear accident. Experts from the IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived at the Ukrainian site on Thursday, September 1, 2022. After verification, the Director General of the Agency, Rafael Grossi, affirmed: “The physical integrity of the plant was deliberately breached”. The site of the plant has indeed been bombed several times, which prompts the experts to stay on site. “There is a group that will be there until Sunday or Monday to continue the evaluation”, announced Rafael Grossi. One of the reactors of the nuclear power plant was stopped on Thursday, September 1, due to Russian bombardments, indicated the Ukrainian operator of the atomic power plants Energoatom.
For many weeks, the international community has been concerned about the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, the largest in Europe. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed concern about the situation in Zaporizhia. He said he was worried “until the situation stabilizes”. However, this is far from stable. The plant, located in the city of Enerhodar, in southern Ukraine, has been bombed frequently since the start of the war. Thus, a first visit by the IAEA was scheduled for September 1 and the Ukrainian and Russian authorities had given security guarantees to the experts. Despite this, bombings took place all morning, leading to the shutdown of a reactor. The two belligerents reject the fault, Ukraine denouncing the firing of mortars and automatic weapons by the Russians. For its part, Russia accuses kyiv of having sent “saboteurs” on the spot. “Around 6 a.m., two groups of saboteurs from the Ukrainian army, up to sixty people, landed on board seven boats (…) 3 km northeast of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant”, announced the Russian Ministry of Defense in a communicated, stating that he had taken measures “to annihilate the enemy”. The teams of the IAEA agency have decided to stay on site in order to “preserve” the nuclear site. They want to “evaluate the real situation”, but also “help stabilize the situation as much as possible”.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant targeted by bombardments
Several bombings have targeted the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant or neighboring towns since the beginning of the war in ukraine. Moscow and kyiv blame each other for each new strike, but both sides are called upon by the international community and the IAEA to put an end to attacks near the site given the danger that this represents. Calls renewed in August when several bombings followed one another. The latest strikes date back no further than the morning of September 1, the day of the visit by IAEA experts. Assaults of Russian origin targeted the city of Enerhodar, according to Ukraine.
In addition to the bombardments which have already hit a radioactive material storage building and a reactor of the plant, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant was also temporarily disconnected from the electricity grid by Russian troops between August 25 and 26. The procedure, even temporary, almost jeopardized the plant since it prevented the cooling of the reactors and ran the risk of overheating and therefore of a nuclear accident. The situation returned to normal thanks to a back-up system which took over until the site was connected to the electricity grid. In the following days, the Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom warned of the risk of radioactive leaks and fires after new strikes. The national company indicated that “the infrastructure of the plant has been damaged and there are risks of hydrogen leakage and spraying of radioactive substances”. According to her, it is also necessary to fear a high risk of fire.
What are the risks for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant?
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that it is worried about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the risks smoldering on the site due to the bombardments. “The installation is working, but with difficulties, so that in the current circumstances the scenario of an accident cannot be excluded. There are continuous interruptions in the electricity supply, problems with spent fuels… An accident makes you go from green to red without transition. So, I am indeed worried”, detailed Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, in an interview granted to the World August 26.
The risk of a meltdown accident at the plant’s core has become a possibility since the disconnection of the nuclear plant from the electricity grid at the end of August. Electricity is essential to ensure the cooling of the reactors and to avoid a nuclear accident and according to the boss of the Ukrainian nuclear industry, Petro Kotin, 90 minutes without electricity would be sufficient for the temperature of the reactors to become worrying and for a start of fusion to be considered. . Still, the risk is “very unlikely” according to Emmanuelle Galichet, teacher-researcher in nuclear physics at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, contacted by the world, August 31. The important security measures that take into account the presence of twenty emergency generators offer “about a week to ten days of fuel autonomy”, enough to allow time to intervene and avoid disaster. The expert also excludes the risk of an explosion or the formation of a radioactive cloud, as was the case during the Fukushima explosion.
According to Emmanuelle Galichet, the risks and accidents most likely to occur mainly concern the storage of radioactive waste. “If the very robust containers in which they are stored were to give way, there will be a dissemination of radioactivity around the storage area”, she explains, once again ruling out the hypothesis of a radioactive cloud in the upper atmosphere. For the time being, “no abnormal release of radioactivity” has been noted by research institutes, which are very attentive to the situation.
Map of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located on the banks of the Dnieper River, in the southern part of Ukraine. The site is not in the direct vicinity of the city, but about fifty kilometers as the crow flies to the south-west of the town. It is precisely installed on the territory of the city of Enerhodar.
While Ukraine currently has five nuclear power plants on its territory, that of Zaporijia is the most powerful in Europe.