The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, told the agency’s Board of Governors in Vienna on September 9 that six out of seven nuclear safety principles have been compromised at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022. He underlined that the plant remains under extraordinary risk, with its operations reduced to cold shutdown but without the conditions necessary for a safe restart.
Mounting risks from damaged infrastructure
According to Grossi, Zaporizhzhia currently relies on a single external power line, leaving its cooling and monitoring systems dangerously exposed to disruption. Water levels in the plant’s cooling reservoir have fallen to 13.4 meters, close to the critical threshold of 12 meters, below which cooling systems fail. He said construction of a new pumping station is urgently needed to sustain reactor safety. Despite being the largest nuclear plant in Europe, Zaporizhzhia has faced repeated blackouts, shelling incidents and even fires since Russia’s takeover.
Moscow’s push to connect the plant
Ukrainian officials and IAEA experts warn that none of the six reactors can be restarted safely under current conditions. Nonetheless, evidence has grown that Russian authorities are trying to integrate the plant into their national grid ahead of the heating season. Kyiv’s Ministry of Energy described the situation as a “beyond-design threat,” arguing that the consequences of operation under occupation cannot be reliably assessed. Any attempt to link Zaporizhzhia to Russia’s system, experts caution, would heighten risks because of inadequate oversight and inexperienced management.
Restricted monitoring and growing concerns
IAEA observers have been stationed permanently at Zaporizhzhia since 2022, but Moscow continues to block access to parts of the facility. Inspectors were recently denied entry to a newly built Russian dam at one of the cooling ponds, raising further doubts about transparency. Ukrainian officials insist that the plant can only return to safe operation once it is de-occupied, restored to the control of state operator Energoatom, and placed within a demilitarized zone free of troops and weapons.
Calls for international pressure and U.S. involvement
Grossi’s warnings come amid broader geopolitical discussions about the plant’s future. During talks this spring between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Washington’s role in the de-occupation of the site was raised. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously suggested that transferring operational control of Zaporizhzhia to the United States would provide the strongest guarantee for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. For now, the IAEA continues to stress that Russia’s occupation remains the single greatest risk factor driving the possibility of a nuclear disaster with consequences surpassing Chernobyl or Fukushima.
