Ukraine update | News


IAEA statement on the Ukraine situation


Ukraine Nuclear power In its update published on 7 April the International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi states that it is aware of recent drone footage said to be showing trenches made by Russian troops in a contaminated area near Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant and it is ready to visit the site as soon as it is possible to assess the radiation situation and to provide other safety assistance as needed.


The IAEA is still not able to confirm reports during the week beginning 28 March of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone set up after the 1986 accident. Russia took control of the area on 24 February and held it for five weeks before withdrawing on 31 March. Ukraine has told the IAEA that the process of resuming regulatory control of the NPP has begun. Ukrainian authorities have published footage which they say shows fortifications dug by Russian forces in the Exclusion Zone during their presence at the site. The IAEA has reviewed the footage but can only


undertake an independent radiological assessment once its experts are on the site. Director General Grossi said the IAEA also needs to urgently send its nuclear safety experts to the site to make their own assessment of the status of the Chornobyl NPP and restore online monitoring there, which was interrupted at the start of the conflict. The IAEA is prepared to send any other safety-related equipment and components to the NPP, where various radioactive waste management


Rivne Khmelnytskyy Chornobyl facilities are located. South Ukraine Connected


Temporarily shut down/in reserve


Under construction Decommissioned Destroyed


Operational status of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as of 7 March


Zaporizhzhya


“It is of paramount importance that the IAEA travels to Chornobyl so that we can take urgent action to assist Ukraine in ensuring nuclear safety and security there,” he said. “I’m in close consultations with our Ukrainian counterparts to organize such a visit as soon as it is possible.” Ukraine separately informed the IAEA on 7 April that there had been no other developments related to nuclear safety and security over the previous 24 hours. Regarding Ukraine’s 15 operable VVER reactors at four sites (capable of providing about half the country’s electricity) , as of 7 April, eight were connected to the grid, including two at Zaporizhzhya, three at Rivne, two at South Ukraine, and one at Khmelnytskyy. The seven other reactors were shut down for regular maintenance or held in reserve. In relation to safeguards, the IAEA said it was still not receiving remote data transmission from its monitoring systems at the Chornobyl site, but such data was being transferred to IAEA headquarters from the other nuclear plants in Ukraine.


Russian gas supply cuts would cause severe damage Germany Energy policy


Leading industrialists in Germany have warned against the severe damage that would be caused by stopping Russian gas deliveries. “If we cut off Russian gas deliveries, the repercussions will be dramatic” Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy told German language business newspaper Handelsblatt. “For some industries, a steady gas supply is essential. [For example] the glass industry. Once the systems go cold, they’re gone,” he said, adding that it was questionable whether the affected companies would invest in Germany again afterwards. Production without Russian gas would be possible, he said, by importing liquified natural gas and building up renewables, but not immediately. Delivering LNG gas from terminals in the west to the east of the country would also be difficult. BASF head Martin Brudermüller warned of an unprecedented economic downturn that could “submit the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War,” he told Frankfurt newspaper Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. An embargo on Russian gas “would threaten the existence of small and medium-sized companies in particular”, he said, adding that it would take four to five


years to substitute the Russian deliveries with other sources. At the BASF plant in Ludwigshafen 40 000 employees could be affected, in addition to many products that are needed in the value chains of groceries and medicines.


More and more companies that are highly depended on natural gas have started to engage lawyers, Handelsblatt reports. Manufacturers of steel, glass, food, and pharmaceutical products in particular have suffered under high prices and want to know what compensation claims they have in case of a cut in the gas supply. Gas suppliers, on the other hand, want to know if they can use “force majeure” clauses (claiming that it is impossible for them to deliver the contracted amount of gas), and therefore are permitted to forego their obligations.


Prices for gas supplied to companies have increased by 51.8 % in the second half of 2021, the Federal Statistical Office said today. Electricity costs for non-household customers were up 11.8 %.


The call for caution, or at least careful consideration of the consequences, has been backed in other quarters. A complete disruption of energy trading between Russia


and the rest of Europe would have grave consequences for the economies of Germany and other EU countries, says energy and security policy expert Kirsten Westphal, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs If the flow of gas, oil and coal from Russia is ended by either side, cascading effects in production and supply chains could lead to the collapse of entire markets, she argues. In an interview with Germany-based online commentator Clean Energy Wire, Westphal says the situation created by Russia’s government has long been considered “unthinkable” by many observers who assumed the country’s leadership ultimately would be guided by economic interests. The debate about the advisability of a full embargo is being debated across Europe. While a number of economists have said that an immediate embargo could be handled, others have warned of impacts that may hurt European economies more than Russia in the short term. The German government has repeatedly warned against imposing an embargo on Russian fossil fuels while at the same time redoubling efforts to become independent of these deliveries.


www.modernpowersystems.com | April 2022 | 5


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