Situation in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant: “What you hear is devastating”

ARD correspondent Andrea Beer reports from Zaporizhia about the IAEA inspection at the nuclear power plant. She describes the difficulties the mission faces – and that nuclear power plant employees report violence by Russian occupiers.

ARD: They are in the city of Zaporizhia, about 50 kilometers northeast of the nuclear power plant. What do you hear and see from there? And how safe can electricity continue to be produced there?

Andrea Beer: At the moment there are no reports of new shelling – Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the shelling. It is clear that the nuclear power plant is damaged – IAEA boss Rafael Grossi said so yesterday after he was able to tour the power plant and the departments and facilities. He himself has since left, but some of the inspectors are still on site at the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant and want to stay there for three to four days with the Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushenko.

ARD: Russian troops have been occupying the power plant for six months. How are they doing there?

beer: Locally, we are dependent on purely Russian sources – and these are the state propaganda media, so we always have to be careful with them. From the Russian point of view it is like this: they guard the nuclear power plant, there are no soldiers there – and the Ukrainians are the ones who cause the problems and the shelling there.

Before the start of the mission, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they were ready to show everything. Now, however, the Ukrainian operator Energoatom has already commented and says: It is clear to everyone that this is an extremely unique mission – to inspect a nuclear power plant in a war zone. But as long as there is a Russian occupation there, that cannot work at all.

You also gave a few examples: According to Energoatom, the Russians did not show the IAEA people the crisis center of the plant, where the Russian soldiers are said to be now. Or another example: military cars would be in the engine rooms of engines and had been presented to the IAEA as equipment for a completely different purpose. Then the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized that there are no independent media on site.

So there’s been a lot of criticism – but of course everyone realizes that it’s a very unusual mission. The IAEA wants to write a report and hold a press conference in Vienna tonight.

“Little chance of demilitarization”

ARD: How does the Russian occupation deal with the Ukrainian experts on the ground?

beer: From the Ukrainian side it’s like this: journalists have contacts with employees at the nuclear power plant, most of whom live in the city of Enerhodar – that’s the city that belongs to the power plant, so to speak, translated it means “energy gift”. What you hear is devastating. They say: We can’t go out on the streets anymore, people disappear, we are tortured, we are beaten, we are threatened with weapons in the nuclear power plant. Only yesterday there were further allegations from an institute in Ukraine that even women were being raped.

So there is enormous pressure here, if these statements are to be believed, and it is an extremely difficult situation – because they have been under pressure for months to keep this nuclear power plant running despite the shelling.

ARD: How far away is the nuclear complex from the current front line?

beer: He’s very close. The city of Zaporizhia is about 60 kilometers from the Russian-occupied territory, roughly speaking everything is within a 100-kilometer circle. Of course, 50 kilometers from the front line is a long way – but the area is in the middle of a war.

ARD: Demilitarization is therefore a demand that is raised again and again. Do you think there is any chance of that?

beer: It doesn’t look like it at the moment. Russia has repeatedly rejected a demilitarized zone.

The Ukrainian side has strongly emphasized that this mission cannot function under Russian occupation – it cannot be that the IAEA experts are shown everything and can work independently. That’s why President Zelenskyy, Energy Minister Galushenko and the operating company Energoatom all said: There must be this demilitarized zone, this nuclear power plant must be controlled by Ukraine again.

“You can’t ‘plug’ a nuclear power plant”

ARD: Even if the inspectors leave in a few days, what are the chances that there will be permanent checks, that cameras can be set up and so on?

beer: I think it’s just unclear at the moment. Nuclear safety must be established and it must be clarified: is all the radioactive material still there? It must not be taken away. Soldiers are in the facility – that’s not allowed either. At least the experts first have to get an idea and clarify: How is the radioactive material, the fuel elements, handled? And – very important: is the power supply and thus also the cooling of the reactor blocks guaranteed?

Last week, the nuclear power plant was temporarily off the grid – that caused a lot of excitement. And now, since morning, one of the two active reactors is no longer running – it’s a highly complex situation. And if you want to have some control over it, you have to be able to examine it independently and professionally on site.

ARD: How important is the Zaporizhia power plant for Ukraine?

beer: It is very important! About half of the electricity for Ukraine comes from this nuclear power plant, among other things, so Ukraine is very dependent on this electricity. And the great political fear is that Russia could try to disconnect the nuclear power plant from the Ukrainian grid and – to put it in layman’s terms – divert this electricity to the annexed Crimea or to the occupied territories. Because there has to be electricity there too. You can’t just “replug” a nuclear power plant – and if something like that were to be done, it could be very dangerous. In any case, the experts say: There is a great risk of fire and explosion, there can be an accident or further damage can be caused by shelling. So the situation is very, very difficult.

The interview was conducted by Gerd Wolff, NDR Info