Chernobyl operators in “increasingly difficult” situation, says IAEA

Technical staff at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine and controlled by Russia, faces “increasingly difficult conditions”while work continues to restore the power supply to the plant, the UN nuclear agency (IAEA) reported on Friday.

“The technicians have begun to repair the damaged power lines” earlier this week, said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it’s a statement.

According to information transmitted to IAEA by Ukraine’s nuclear regulator, a section has been repaired, but external power is still down.

“Repair work will continue despite the difficult situation outside the nuclear power plant,” he added.

Although emergency diesel generators are providing backup power, “it is still important to fix power lines as soon as possibleGrossi stressed.

Despite the problems, the IAEA ensures that there is no risk of a “critical hit” on site, where there are radioactive waste management facilities, “since the volume of cooling water from the spent fuel facility is sufficient to maintain heat removal without electricity supply.”

On the other hand, the regulator “expressed concern about the availability of food stocks” for the 211 technical staff and guards who have been living at the plant since Russia launched its military offensive in Ukraine more than two weeks ago, and “They face increasingly difficult conditions.”

In addition, the regulator lost communication with the plant and cannot provide information to the IAEA on the radiological control of the facility, although it continues to receive information on the situation “through the senior officials of the plant outside the site,” the statement said.

Regarding the situation of the operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine, which are four, he confirmed that 8 of the 15 reactors were still operating, including two at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, with normal radiation levels.

Zaporozhie, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has four high-voltage power lines (750 kV) outside the plant, plus an additional standby.

Two of these lines were damaged in the recent fighting in the area, so there are two power lines, plus a reserve one, available to the plant, where they also “work is underway to detect and remove unexploded ordnance found in their damaged training facility.”

At that plant, the personnel operating the plant (Ukrainian) were rotating according to their usual schedule, but, according to the regulator, “the presence of foreign forces in the area is affecting work morale and causing pressure.”

Additional damage was also reported at a new nuclear research facility in the city of Kharkov. Since its nuclear material is “subcritical”, the IAEA it considers that the damage “would not have had any radiological consequence”.

Regarding the partial loss of transmission to the IAEA of remote data on nuclear material and activities at nuclear power plants, is still not working from Chernobyl and there are “intermittent problems” from the plant in South Ukraine.

Instead, from Zaporizhzhya the transmission has been restored, the UN agency said.