IAEA Worried About Water Volume At PLTN Zaporizhia After The Broken Kakhovka Dam

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Ralf1969)

JAKARTA - The UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday it needed wider access around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (PLTN), to check for "significant differences" in water level data at the broken Kakhovka dam used to cool the reactor.

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, who will visit the PLTN this week, said measurements received by the agency from the PLTN entrance showed the water level at the dam was stable for about a day at the end of last week.

"However, altitude is reported to continue to fall elsewhere in this large reservoir, causing a possible difference of about two meters," Grossi said in a statement.

"The surface level of water is a key parameter for the operational continuity of water pumps," he continued.

The damage to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam in southern Ukraine last week, causing flooding in downstream cities and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

Both the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, have been occupied by Russia since the early days of its invasion in February 2022.

It is known, water from the reservoir is used to cool six reactors and storage of used fuel at the facility, the IAEA said.

"It is possible that the differences in these measured levels are due to isolated water bodies separated from larger reservoir bodies," Gross said in a statement.

"But we will only be able to find out when we get access to the power plant," he said.

Grossi said the heat power plant "plays a key role for the safety and security of a nuclear power plant that is several kilometers away," therefore an independent access and assessment is needed.

Previously, the agency had said PLTN Zaporizhia could use other water sources when the water in the reservoir was no longer available, including a large cooling pool above the reservoir that could hold water for several months.