The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian troops, is “very dangerous” and “very unstable,” said the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Raphael Grossi, quoted by Reuters.

Ukrainian nuclear power plant in ZaporizhzhiaPhoto: Kostyantyn Mikhalchevskyi / Sputnik / Profimedia

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the nuclear facility has lost external power six times, forcing emergency diesel generators to cool the reactors.

Grossi says another potential danger is the water level in a nearby reservoir, which is controlled by Russian forces. The water supplied from the tank is used to cool the reactors.

  • “If the reservoir level drops above a certain level, there is no water to cool the reactors, and we observed, especially in January, that the water level dropped significantly. They somehow recovered in recent weeks,” the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency explained to Reuters.

He also said military activity was increasing in the region, without elaborating.

Grossi, who met with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday at the Dnipro hydroelectric plant, northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant, said his bid to reach an agreement to protect the plant was still on.

Zelensky: “Holding the NPP hostage is the worst thing that could happen in the history of nuclear energy”

In his message on Monday evening after a visit to the Zaporizhia region and after a meeting with the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Zelensky noted that “holding a nuclear power plant hostage for more than a year is the worst thing that has happened, can happen in the history of nuclear energy.”

  • “The topic is clear: the safety of our energy industry, our nuclear power plants. First of all, the Zaporizhzhya NPP, with which Russia is still blackmailing the world with radiation (…)
  • Holding a nuclear power plant hostage for more than a year is the worst thing that could happen in the history of European nuclear power and the world in general.
  • The longer the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhya NPP lasts, the greater the threat to the security of Ukraine, the whole of Europe and the world will be. I am grateful to our partners, I am grateful to Grossa for understanding this and supporting Ukraine in the relevant issues,” Zelenskyy added.