ENERGODAR / Russia’s Zaporozhye Region/, October 15. /TASS/. All the damage the Ukrainian military has caused to the infrastructure of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant will be repaired, Yury Chernichuk, the director of the plant, told TASS.

"The damage from all the attacks carried out on the nuclear plant have either been fixed or are in the process of being fixed. Fortunately, the roof of the Power unit hit by a drone in April was not affected. We let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts go up there and showed them [the damage] that very same day. In September 2022, on the day when IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi first paid a visit, we experienced a massive shelling of the plant. One tank was damaged - now it is being repaired. Fortunately, it is not involved in the current technological process. Thus, we have some time to carry out normal repair work on this tank," Chernichuk said.

He added that the Ukrainian attacks have damaged the training center, located next to the station. "The training center was also targeted. Some of the window openings are boarded up with plywood sheets. And it is not because we are running out of glass, but because we realize that another attack could come at any moment. That is why we are currently guided by this interim, postponed decision," the director of the plant said.

Consequences of Ukrainian strikes on Zaporozhye NPP

On September 1, 2022, the day when IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi first came to the Zaporozhye NPP, the Ukrainian army fired artillery shells, delivering strikes on the area of Vasilyevka settlement and Zaporozhye NPP - the place of the experts’ meeting - from the early morning. Four shells exploded just 400 meters from the facility’s Power Unit 1. Moreover, Ukrainian troops conducted massive artillery shelling of Energodar’s residential areas.

On April 7, 2024, the Ukrainian army conducted three drone attacks on the Zaporozhye NPP and struck the cargo area and canteen located on the territory of the plant. One of the unmanned aerial vehicles hit the roof of the facility’s Power Unit 6. On April 8, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone was shot down over the NPP with its fragments falling onto the roof of Power Unit 6. In April, the roof of the Zaporozhye NPP training center, which houses the world's only full-scale reactor hall simulator, was hit twice and damaged as a result. However, the simulator itself remained intact.

The infrastructure of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant suffered such serious damage for the first time on August 11, when Ukrainian drones delivered two direct strikes on one of the two cooling towers at the Zaporozhye NPP, which resulted in a fire. The tower was completely burned from the outside. The experts of the Zaporozhye NPP will examine it to assess the facility’s condition and figure out the feasibility of restoring the damaged cooling tower.

The Zaporozhye NPP, located in Energodar, has six power units with a total capacity of 6 GW. It is Europe’s largest nuclear power generating facility. At the end of February 2022, the facility was taken over by Russian forces. Since then, Ukrainian army units have periodically shelled both residential areas in Energodar and the plant itself using drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers. All six units of the plant are in cold shutdown, they are not generating electricity. The plant has the required personnel to ensure safe operation, the equipment is maintained in accordance with all necessary regulations under strict control of radiation and nuclear safety standards and under the supervision of IAEA experts.