The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) has said that "Energoatom is the only legitimate licensee of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) and that the plant has to be operated as per licence conditions and in accordance with Ukrainian and international legal and regulatory requirements, under the supervision of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU)."
ENSREG members include the national nuclear safety regulators of all 27 EU countries, with Belarus, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey as observers. The meeting was also attended by SNRIU and the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association, which encompasses a similar membership to ENSREG, with the addition of the UK and more observers, including Japan and the USA.
The ENSREG statement:
“condemns strongly the Russian Federation’s military attacks on nuclear power plants and the Ukrainian electrical grid”;calls for urgently establishing a nuclear safety and security protection zone at ZNPP, “provided that such zone respects Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity and supports the IAEA Director General’s efforts in this respect”;urges Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, ZNPP and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine and allow the competent Ukrainian authorities to regain full control over all nuclear facilities within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders”;calls for reinforcing the international rules to prohibit armed attacks against any nuclear installation devoted to peaceful purposes;supports the acceleration of Ukraine’s integration in all crises response mechanisms for nuclear emergency.Since Russia took control of ZNPP in March the Russian national guard has been protecting the station and on 5 October, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree formally transferring ZNPP to Russian jurisdiction under nuclear utility Rosenergoatom (part of Rosatom). A Russian Federal State Unitary Enterprise, JSC Zaporizhzhia NPP, has been established by Rosenergoatom to operate the plant. It is headed by the former chief engineer of Russia’s Balakov NPP, Oleg Romanenko. However, Energoatom continues to claim ownership of the plant and the IAEA recognises this claim.
On 30 November, Russian further strengthened control of ZNPP, when the Advisor to the General Director of Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, appointed Yuri Alekseyevich Chernichuk as Director of ZNPP and first deputy director of plant operator JSC Zaporizhzhia NPP under Romanenko. Chernichuk was former Chief Engineer of ZNPP and also former head of ZNPP unit 4 as well as chief engineer at Ukrainian nuclear utility Energoatom. Karchaa described his as “an extremely decent person”. ZNPP has been without a Director since Igor Murashov was convicted of cooperation with the Ukrainian intelligence services on 30 September and was expelled to Ukrainian territory.
Chernichuk told Ria Novosti that the entire management team at ZNPP, including the position of the chief engineer, now comprises representatives of the former plant staff who have signed a new employment contracts with Rosenergoatom. Karchaa confirmed this: "The entire management team, including the chief engineer, his deputies and all the key positions in general, are currently occupied by representatives of the former team who signed contracts with the operating company, so I suggest that the gentlemen on the other side of the [Dnepr] river [Energoatom] and their supervisors finally calm down." He noted that the salaries for certain categories of personnel had been increased by 30%.
The new appointment was welcomed by the Acting Governor of Zaporizhia Region, Yevhen Balitsky, who noted his managerial experience at the plant. “Yuri Alekseyevich is a specialist who has worked at ZNPP for many years, is well versed in all the technical issues of the plant's operation and has managerial experience," he wrote on his Telegram channel. “It is very important that the management of the station is in reliable and professional hands. In the hands of people who are able to make prompt decisions in the face of constant provocations from neighbouring territories."
In a lengthy interview with TASS on 30 November Rosenergoatom’s Renat Karchaa described the situation at ZNPP. He said closure of the ZNPP units was perceived by the personnel “as a personal grief”. Initially they were scared by the shelling but after the forced shutdown unit 6, when the station completely switched to the cold shutdown mode, “fear was replaced by deep despondency, they were depressed,” he said. “When we recently managed to put one of the reactors into a hot shutdown state, all the employees came to life and cheered up,” but further shelling caused it to be stopped again.
He said that before the start of the special military operation the station's staff consisted of approximately 11,000 people. “Some people left, including to visit relatives in Ukraine. … To date, approximately 5,000 people continue to work.” More than 2,400 of them signed contracts with the new operating company. “Now they are full-time employees, and their bank cards receive salaries that exceed the previous salary by 20-30% in certain categories. These people have a decent social package.” He said some had taken Russian passports but others were afraid to do so as Ukraine is threatening them with a criminal prosecution for collaboration, including 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. He added that “collaboration means the most minimal contact with representatives of the Russian government”.
He said that after the NPP became Russian property, the activities of the plant and its staff, as well as all enterprises of the domestic nuclear industry, should be brought into compliance with Russian standards and regulations but “it's not easy to do this overnight”. He added: First, people have been under stress for a very long time. Secondly, nuclear scientists are intelligent people who think, and we are not going to bring anyone to their knees because it is not appropriate to do this to people.” At his first meeting with the staff, he said “one simple thing - for us, nuclear safety is not just a reactor, a steam generator, a turbine, or some other technological unit. For us, nuclear safety is about the people involved in the process.”
Karchaa explained that currently ZNPP has no external power supply which means no real heat supply for Energodar from units 5&6 which are under hot shutdown. The temperature in the batteries leaves much to be desired,” he said. He added that work was underway to connect to transmission lines in Russia. “Currently, there are two main transmission lines. One of them passes through Kakhovka in the Kherson region, and it suffered huge damage as a result of artillery strikes … The second line runs on the route Dzhankoy-Melitopol-Molochansk-Energodar. Ukraine was well aware that we were looking for an alternative way to supply and withdraw electricity. That is why the Energodar thermal power plant has become the target of Ukrainian artillery.
Currently Russia is carrying out an inventory at the station, he said. “Ukraine's constant shelling hinders the process but the inventory will definitely be completed. … Everything is moving more slowly than we would like, due to objective circumstances which are not under our control. He also confirmed that ZNPP would eventually be a switched back to using Russian fuel rather than fuel from Westinghouse. He noted that work was already underway to build extra protection for the used fuel storage areas. “No one has ever studied the consequences of damage to containers with used nuclear fuel through artillery strikes from the point of view of radiation hazard. It is necessary to understand how many containers will be depressurised, how much radioactive material will get into the external environment, and take into account the wind direction. The case of the ZNPP is unique. No nuclear power plant has ever been shelled by artillery.”
On the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) he stressed that it is an organisation that deals primarily with nuclear safety. “The IAEA is objectively unable to influence the actions of the military. This is outside the scope of the organization's competencies and real leverage. The creation of a security zone, which is so actively promoted by the leadership of this international institution, is a long and very difficult process. But an indispensable and obligatory condition for this is the unconditional cessation of artillery attacks, which, as you know, are carried out exclusively by Ukraine.”