As of September 5, 2022, 10:00 am, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant operates with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards. At present, only power unit 6 remains in operation, which supplies electricity to the energy system of Ukraine and provides power to the plant in-house consumers”, Energoatom said in the statement.

The company also reports that yet there are no comments on the operation of equipment and safety systems.

Energoatom reminds that on the evening of September 3, after the subsequent shelling by Russian invaders, the line between the Zaporizhzhia NPP and the energy system of Ukraine was damaged, as a result of which the ZNPP power unit 5 was disconnected from the grid.

According to the Energoatom, the IAEA delegation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP continues its work.

“The military of the Russian Federation remain at the ZNPP site, and trucks with weapons and ammunition are located in the turbine hall of power units 1 and 2”, the company added.

Energoatom also reported that four of the six representatives of the IAEA mission completed their work at the Zaporizhzhia plant and left the site. It is expected that two experts will continue to work at ZNPP on a full-time basis.

According to the acting chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) Oleg Korikov, a preliminary statement on the work of the IAEA mission may be made on Tuesday, September 6, at the meeting of the UN Security Council, which is planned to be held at the subsequent request to Russia on the situation at the ZNPP. He informed about this in his interview to Glavkom. At the same time, the IAEA Director General said on Friday that he hoped to receive the report on Monday, September 5.

We would like to remind that Grossi’s greatest concern following the results of the visit is physical integrity due to hostilities, external power supply and the staff of the ZNPP. Everything else has a “less degree of drama”.

Commenting on the work of the mission in Ukraine in the interview with TC Espresso, Mark Zheleznyak, a scientist at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity of Fukushima University, who is a longtime IAEA expert, stressed that one should not expect much from the IAEA mission - for example, the demilitarization of the ZNPP, as some officials and politicians expected. “Each structure functions within its capabilities”, he noted, adding that the role of the IAEA is not only control and recommendations on the safety of nuclear power plants, but most importantly, the nonproliferation of nuclear materials...” According to him, the tasks of those two specialists who remained at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is a detailed analysis of the preliminary events around nuclear materials, when the communication with the IAEA was interrupted at the relevant facilities. He is also convinced that the IAEA has coped with the task of demonstrating that the Agency pays the highest level of attention to ZNPP: “therefore, the head of the mission is the head of the IAEA”. Another task of the mission is to assess the technical condition of ZNPP, whether it is appropriate accounting for the existing threats. “What did Mr. Grossi see with his own eyes? He saw the military equipment that stood in the turbine halls. There was some mumbling from the Russian side that these were some chemical defense machines, but this was a gross violation. And he said that he had seen this violation. But he has no right to comment on anything”, Mr. Zheleznyak emphasized. “We don't need the IAEA to deploy tanks to the ZNPP and kick the Russians out of there, the IAEA should write a technical report that will become the basis for the next steps that our diplomacy will take, world diplomacy”, the expert summed up.

The SNRIU website informs that on September 1-4, 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with the inspection as part of the mission in pursuance of the agreement between Ukraine and the IAEA under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The inspection was carried out by the Agency inspectors. “During their work, the IAEA inspectors checked the documentation on accounting and control of nuclear materials and checked the nuclear material in the declared places of its storage. Maintenance of the IAEA storage and monitoring equipment was performed. The purpose of the inspection is to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear materials”, the Regulator said.

At the same time, it became known that the President of Ukraine is against the transition of two more ZNPP power units to the cold shutdown state. Vladimir Zelensky said this in an interview with ABC news: “I know that the Russians would like the reactors to be disconnected from the Ukrainian network and connected to the Russian one. No, we do not agree with this”.

Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War informed that the Russian occupiers are using MLRS from the territory of the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. According to him, this can be seen on the geolocation video.