The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that its experts have not been granted access to reactor halls of three of the six power units of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the occupied city of Enerhodar, Zaporizhia region.

"Five of the ZNPP's six reactors remain in cold shutdown, while unit 4 is in hot shutdown to produce steam and heat, including for the nearby town of Enerhodar, where most plant staff live.The IAEA team has continued to conduct walkdowns across the site as part of activities to monitor the nuclear safety and security situation at the ZNPP, as well as adherence to the five concrete principles for the protection of this major facility. However, the IAEA experts remain unable to gain access to all parts of the site, and for the past two weeks they have not been allowed to access the reactor halls of units 1, 2 and 6," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on the situation in Ukraine on January 3.

According to the statement, "this is the first time that IAEA experts have not been granted access to a reactor hall of a unit that was in cold shutdown. This is where the reactor core and spent fuel are located. The team will continue to request this access."

In addition, access to some parts of the ZNPP's turbine halls continues to be restricted, including those areas of reactor units 3, 4 and 6 over the past week. Also, the IAEA experts still await the access to the reactor rooftops planned on 19 December that didn’t happen due to stated security concerns.

"In a separate development during a walkdown of the safety system rooms of unit 6 on 22 December, the IAEA experts observed boric acid deposits on valves, a pump and on the floors of several rooms in the containment building. The plant informed the team that the source of the leak is one of the boric acid storage tanks and that considering the small magnitude of the leak it is not planned to be repaired immediately, but rather as part of the planned maintenance of the impacted system. This type of leak can occur during the operation of a plant. However, this kind of event requires proper and timely attention, investigation and response from the operator, to prevent further and potentially more severe safety implications. The team will closely follow developments regarding this issue," the IAEA said in the statement.

Frequent power cuts have remained a source of serious concern for safety and security at the plant, Grossi said, as it needs electricity to cool its reactors and for other essential functions, even when all reactor units have been shut down. Since August 2022, the ZNPP has suffered eight events with a complete loss of off-site power. the plant carried out work on its back-up electrical transformers and two out of three are now operational, of which one is permanently connected to the on-site back-up power lines – known as busbars – of all six reactor units.