IAEA Director General to visit Zaporizhzhia NPP to save it

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi plans to visit Zaporizhzhia NPP next week since the water level in the reservoir cooling the plant's reactor has dropped by 2.8 meters reaching 14.03 metres due to the Russian explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, which poses a threat to the safety of nuclear reactors.

This was reported by the IAEA.

The report emphasizes that if the level falls below 12.7 metres, the ZNPP will no longer be able to pump water from the reservoir to cool nuclear reactors.

“Now more than ever, the IAEA’s reinforced presence at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is of vital importance to help prevent the danger of a nuclear accident and its potential consequences for the people and the environment at a time of increased military activity in the region” Grossi said.

The Zaporizhzhya NPP is currently working to ensure that it has the maximum amount of cooling water in reserve in case the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir continues to drop rapidly after the Russians blew up the dam.

It is still unclear when exactly the water will disappear completely, but it is noted that at the current rate of water fall, it is a matter of the next two days.

Replenishment of the cooling pond next to the plant and smaller cooling ponds and adjacent canals will give the plant an emergency opportunity to stabilize the threat of reactor overheating for several months subject to favorable conditions.

As a reminder, Kakhovka HPP was occupied by Russia and mined by Russian troops in the fall of 2022. On June 6, 2023, the Russians carried out their threats to blow up the dam of the Kakhovka HPP. In violation of the Geneva Convention, the actions of the Russian army led to a huge humanitarian and environmental crisis. Ukrainian authorities are evacuating people from the flooded regions.

So far, about 1,800 homes have been damaged and more than 20,000 people need to be relocated as a result of the dam explosion. Due to the difficult conditions, 1,995 people have been evacuated. Another huge problem is the evacuation of animals left in the flooded areas. People are trying to rescue helpless animals from water traps and take them to safe places on their own.

At the same time, most of the affected Ukrainians remain stranded in the territories occupied by Russian troops. Evacuation activities are hardly carried out in the occupied cities. Russian troops have reportedly denied access to volunteers, extorted bribes for leaving the flooded area, and deliberately blocked Ukrainians, who cannot show Russian passports that were forcibly distributed by the occupiers, in the disaster zone. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi called on international organizations to urgently provide assistance to Ukrainians in the Russian-occupied territories.

It has just become known that Ukraine and the UN have signed an agreement on the immediate formation of teams to provide humanitarian aid and evacuation to the affected occupied territories of the Left Bank of the Kherson region.