Russia refuses to shut down Unit 5, the last partially functioning reactor at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). This was stated by Bloomberg head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi.
The reactor must be transferred to the cold shutdown mode, this is necessary in the conditions of the disappearance of the Kakhovka reservoir as a source of water for cooling. According to Grossi, the Russian leadership of the state corporation Rosatom, which seized the station, thinks otherwise, and refused the agency's recommendations.
“We expressed our opinion that it should be put into cold shutdown mode. The station management thinks otherwise,” Grossi said.
According to data on the Zaporozhye NPP website, Unit 5 is the only one that is in a “hot shutdown” state. The remaining five units are in a "cold shutdown" or "shutdown for repair" state. The chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, and the acting governor of the Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, stated that they “were convinced that the station is operating normally.”
Earlier, the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned that Russia could prepare a provocation on the territory of the Zaporizhzhya NPP, as foreign objects similar to explosive devices were placed on the roof of the third and fourth power units of the nuclear power plant.
On the same day, messages began to appear on Russian Telegram channels that Ukraine was allegedly going to organize an “attack on the ZNPP”. As an argument, the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 is cited, at which it is necessary to “present the result” of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian side also repeatedly accused the Russian Federation of preparing a provocation – on June 22, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about receiving information from Ukrainian intelligence and the SBU that Russia had prepared everything for a possible terrorist attack with a release of radiation at the ZNPP. Nuclear physicist Andrey Ozharovsky told The Insider about the consequences of a possible terrorist attack at the ZNPP.
In addition, there are reports of shelling from both sides during the war. On the morning of May 22, the Russian military shelled the ZNPP territory, as a result, the last high-voltage power line, the Dneprovskaya (750 kV), from which the ZNPP fed its own needs, was disconnected. Ukrainian Energoatom stated that this is the seventh time since the beginning of the occupation of the plant by the Russian Federation (March 4, 2022), when the ZNPP goes into blackout mode. The occupation administration of ZNPP confirmed the shutdown of external power supply, without specifying the reasons, and assured that the radiation background at the plant is normal. In April, at the ZNPP, the windows of the turbine hall of the fourth power unit were knocked out by an explosive wave, Renat Karchaa, adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom, reported. According to him, this happened due to the operation of the UAV.