Zaporizhzhia ‘extremely fragile’ relying on single off-site power line, IAEA warns

June 3, 2025, 3:00PMNuclear News
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. (Photo: Energoatom)

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has just one remaining power line for essential nuclear safety and security functions, compared with its original 10 functional lines before the military conflict with Russia, warned Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

IAEA: Gunfire, drone attack at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

May 22, 2025, 3:00PMNuclear News
An undated photo of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. (Photo: Ralf 1969)

The International Atomic Energy Agency team at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) reported hearing gunfire near the site this morning while a drone hit the plant’s training center.

In a news release today, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said this is the third drone to target the training center, located just outside the site perimeter, so far this year. He called for an immediate end to drones being flown over or near nuclear facilities.

IAEA donates ambulance, medical equipment for Ukraine’s nuclear workforce

April 7, 2025, 12:26PMNuclear News
During a November 2024 mission, the IAEA delivered two new ambulances to Ukraine at the Chernobyl site. Varash Hospital director Tetiana Latyshenko is at left, with Liliana Salaru, IAEA senior medical officer, at right. (Photo: IAEA)

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog delivered emergency medical supplies to Ukraine last week as part of ongoing aid to the country since its conflict with Russia began in 2022.

Trump suggests U.S. takeover of Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks

March 24, 2025, 3:01PMNuclear News
Energoatom’s Zaporizhzhia plant, in southeastern Ukraine, as it appeared in a photo posted to the DOE website in June 2021. (Photo: Energoatom)

Amid recent ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. should take control of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants for long-term security, the Associated Press reported.

“American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure,” Trump suggested, according to a later statement.

IAEA: Chernobyl drone strike latest threat to nuclear safety in Ukraine

February 18, 2025, 9:31AMNuclear News
The New Safe Confinement over unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2017. (Photo: Tim Porter)

Social media this past weekend streamed with reactionary posts following a drone strike last Friday at the site of the destroyed reactor from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The drone—armed with a warhead—ripped a hole in the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a large structure built to prevent any radioactive release from the damaged reactor unit 4 and to protect it from any external hazard. The drone strike caused a fire that was still smoldering in places as of Monday morning, and left a hole larger than 500 square feet. Efforts continue to mitigate the consequences of the fire and extinguish isolated smouldering areas of the NSC's insulation material.

Due to damage to the external and internal cladding of the NSC's arch and main crane system equipment, the safety boundaries and operational conditions of the NSC complex have been compromised, according to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Facebook page.

Reports: Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran

November 19, 2024, 9:35AMNuclear News

U.S. and Israeli officials are now confirming that an October 25 Israeli attack in Iran destroyed an active top secret facility for nuclear weapons research, Axios reports. The strike is said to have significantly hampered efforts by Iran to resume weapons research, despite ongoing denials from the country’s leaders that there is an active weapons program.

IAEA works to advance women in the nuclear community

November 19, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear News
An agreement was signed by IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi (right) and LinkedIn cofounder Allen Blue. (Photo: D.Calma/ IAEA)

A new program called Practical Arrangement, which has been created through a collaboration of the International Atomic Energy Agency and LinkedIn, aims to bring networking and training opportunities to women in the nuclear field. The partnership will provide essential resources, including training, research, and access to LinkedIn’s global network.

Six Ukrainian reactors reduce power following military campaign

November 18, 2024, 7:05AMNuclear News
Photo: IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported that Ukraine’s operating nuclear power plants reduced electricity production yesterday morning as a precautionary measure following widespread military activities across the country that reportedly targeted its energy infrastructure.

IAEA warning issued after assassination of Zaporizhzhia worker

October 10, 2024, 7:03AMNuclear News

A man killed in a car bomb last week in Enerhodar, Ukraine, may have been targeted because of his ties to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency received information from both the Russian Federation and Ukraine about the suspected assassination, which occurred in the town where most of the plant staff live, said IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

IAEA expanding aid to protect Ukraine nuclear infrastructure

September 4, 2024, 3:02PMNuclear News

The military conflict with Russia that began in February 2022 has left Ukraine with “dangerous instability” of its national grid, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

Following a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on September 3, Grossi promised to take a more proactive stance in protecting the country’s energy infrastructure—especially where nuclear safety is vulnerable. During recent months there have been numerous missile and drone attacks, with some directly causing the disconnection of several nuclear power plants.

IAEA’s Grossi highlights the growing promise of nuclear energy

July 19, 2024, 12:02PMANS Nuclear Cafe
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Photo: IAEA)

The peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology today hold more promise to heal the world since Austrian Swedish physicist Lise Meitner and her colleagues discovered nuclear fission in 1938, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a new essay titled “Nuclear Must Be Part of The Solution” published by the magazine Foreign Affairs.

Military action destroys radiation monitor at Ukraine plant

July 3, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, prewar. (Photo: Energoatom)

An external radiation monitoring station was taken out by shelling and fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine the last week of June.

This brings the total to four of the plant’s 14 radiation monitoring sites that are out of commission, further reducing the effectiveness of its off-site capability to detect and measure any radioactive release during an emergency, said IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

IAEA’s Grossi talks with insurance companies’ executives

June 17, 2024, 3:03PMNuclear News
Rafael Mariano Grossi addresses the Nuclear Pools' Forum in Zurich. (Photo: D. Candano Laris/IAEA)

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi was in Switzerland last week to talk with insurance executives at the Nuclear Pools’ Forum about the potential of nuclear power.

Russia has no current plans to restart Ukraine plant

May 31, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. (Photo: Energoatom)

An official from Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom said this week that there are no current plans to reopen the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Ukraine plant temporarily loses main power supply

May 28, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost the connection to its sole remaining 750 kilovolt (kV) off-site power line last week due to a reported short circuit, leaving it reliant on a single backup line for more than three hours.

Grossi, Putin meet to discuss Ukraine nuclear plant concerns

March 6, 2024, 3:03PMNuclear News
Vladimir Putin (left), Rafael Mariano Grossi (right), with Alexey Likhachev (Image: Kremlin.ru)

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Russia this week to discuss the “future operational status” of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Officials: Sole power source to Ukraine plant damaged in shelling

February 22, 2024, 12:01PMNuclear News
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. (Photo: DOE)

Russian shelling is being blamed for damage to the single remaining power source to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, located on the front lines of the ongoing military conflict.

“After another attack by the Russians, the line that provided the energy supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station was damaged,” Ukraine's power grid operator Ukrenergo said in a February 21 statement.

IAEA: Zaporizhzhia shores up backup electricity sources

January 4, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has taken action to ensure an immediate supply of backup electricity at the site in case the main external power line is lost.

Amid Ukraine's ongoing military conflict with Russia, Zaporizhzhia has experienced frequent power cuts. Since August 2022, the plant has suffered eight events with a complete loss of off-site power, according to a statement from International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.