IAEA reports damage to radiation monitoring station near Zaporizhzhya NPP
Kyiv • UNN
Due to the shelling and fire, ZNPP lost communication with an external radiation monitoring station located 16 km away, which further reduced its ability to detect radioactive releases during emergencies.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed by the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) that an external radiation monitoring station was destroyed by shelling and fire this week, further reducing the effectiveness of its off-site capability to detect and measure any radioactive release during an emergency, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on June 27, UNN reports.
Details
"The ZNPP informed the team of IAEA experts at the site that it lost the connection to this monitoring station – located around 16 kilometres south-west of the plant – on Monday afternoon. Due to the security situation, the team was unable to access the location to confirm the damage," the statement said.
Since early 2022, several radiation monitoring stations within a 30-kilometre area around the ZNPP have been out of service for varying periods of time due to damage sustained as a result of the conflict. Four stations, more than a quarter of the pre-conflict total of 14, are currently unavailable.
The latest incident reportedly came just a few days after a 16-hour loss of power in the nearby city of Enerhodar – home to most ZNPP staff – had caused a temporary halt in the operation of some of the environmental radiological monitoring stations after they ran out of back-up battery.
"The functioning of off-site radiation monitoring equipment is an essential part of nuclear safety around the world. These systems are important for continuously monitoring radiation levels and, in the case of an emergency, for quickly assessing the ongoing and potential radiological impact and what protective actions may need to be taken," Director General Grossi said.
"The loss of one radiation monitoring station does not have a direct impact on safety at the ZNPP, but it forms part of a continuous erosion of a range of safety measures during the war that remains a deep source of concern," he added.
