Fire-damaged Zaporizhzhia NPP cooling tower occupied by Russia may be dismantled – IAEA Director General

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant's first cooling tower sustained significant damage in a fire on August 11 and may need to be dismantled.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, stated that following his fifth visit to the station since its occupation by Russia on March 4, 2022.

"Until today, there was no way to get here. Now, we can much better assess what happened. This large structure is unusable. I think it will be dismantled in some way in the future," Grossi commented on what he saw at the ZNPP on the X network.

The IAEA leader also mentioned visiting the water pumping station and the storage facility for new nuclear fuel.

"We will analyze what we saw today," Grossi emphasized.

As he noted, "before the end of the conflict or the transition to a phase when there will be no active hostilities," the possibility of a serious incident at the ZNPP cannot be ruled out.

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Earlier, Rubryka wrote that on September 4, the IAEA mission visited the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Agency representatives inspected the burnt cooling tower.

It is essential to mention that a fire occurred on August 11 at the technical water supply facility located within the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. This incident resulted in a fire breaking out in cooling tower number one and damage to other equipment.

Then, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the IAEA and the international community to respond to the incident.

State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" stated that the probable cause of the fire could be the negligence of the Russian occupiers or deliberate arson, but there were no violations of the boundaries and conditions of safe operation. The cooling tower is located approximately one kilometer from the station's power units.

The company added that the conditions for the safe operation of the NPP have not been violated. In Ukraine, no exceedances of the control levels for emissions and discharges of radioactive substances were recorded, and there was no threat of radiation pollution to the population.

The IAEA stated that, at the moment, they could not reach any definite conclusions regarding the cause of the fire due to the data and observations they had received. They also mentioned that they would persist in their analysis. Additionally, Grossi doubted that the fire originated from the bottom of the cooling tower.

The occupying leadership of the ZNPP declared that it allowed the dismantling of the cooling tower.

The Russians utilize the nuclear power plant's facilities and structures to store military equipment, weapons, explosives, and ammunition. In addition, they store military vehicles in the station's halls.

Cooling towers are also used as storage facilities for military equipment and ammunition, significantly increasing the risk of fires in production facilities.