Issuance by Russia of license to operate power unit No. 2 of Zaporizhia NPP has no legal basis – Greenpeace Ukraine

The issuance by the Russian nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor of a license to operate power unit No. 2 of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has no legal basis either in Ukraine or in international jurisdiction, Greenpeace Ukraine believes.

According to the organization's release Thursday, Rostekhnadzor, like Rosatom, is a criminal organization, and the signing of a license for a facility that has been under occupation for nearly four years and where reactor maintenance has been destroyed has no safety justification. Earlier, on December 23, 2025, Rostekhnadzor had already issued a similar illegal license for Unit No. 1 of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant.

"The idea that Russia has any right to issue an operational license for Ukraine’s nuclear plant at Enerhodar is outrageous. But is not surprising given the scale of their criminal operations at the plant since 2022," said Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist of Greenpeace Ukraine.

According to a new satellite study conducted in 2025 by McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) on behalf of Greenpeace Ukraine, systematic militarization and disregard for nuclear safety principles have been documented at the plant. In particular, satellite analysis showed that the surface area of the cooling pond decreased by more than 100,000 square meters during the summer of 2025.

Greenpeace Ukraine added that new fortified military positions and anti-drone structures have also appeared around the facility.

The organization noted that the issuance of an operating license does not mean the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant's reactors face an immediate threat of restart. The term "operating license" refers to the reactors in their current mode, which since 2022 has primarily been a "cold shutdown" state.

Additionally, Rosatom has declared its illegal intention to restart the reactors. However, the scale of safety concerns at the plant is extraordinary.

"This is also a further example of the dangerous nuclear disinformation campaign by Rosatom to try and convince the world that all is proceeding as normal at the plant... There is nothing normal about a full scale military occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear plant," said Jan Vande Putte of Greenpeace Ukraine.

He also noted that since 2022, torture and intimidation of Ukrainians by Russian forces, facilitated by Rosatom, have been widely employed on the grounds of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, and that the plant itself is being used as a military platform for attacks on and killings of Ukrainian civilians in Nikopol and other regions of Ukraine.

As previously reported, during negotiations in early February, Moscow rejected a U.S. proposal, put forward as part of a peace deal, for full American control over the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, which would have given the United States the right to distribute the plant's energy between Ukraine and Russia.