Zaporizhzhia, what is happening to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant

There Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia is the largest in Europe and the ninth in the world. Located on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, about 500 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, it was occupied by the Russian invasion forces on March 4, 2022, 9 days after the Kremlin-triggered invasion of Ukraine began. Six months from then, while the war is still going through the country, a United Nations inspection team, led by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (Aiea) Rafael Grossiis on his way to the plant to check the conditions of the plant.

1. Previous
2. What impact did the war have on the plant and its workers?
3. What are the main dangerous situations?
4. What happens now?

Built between 1984 and 1995, the plant has been modernized in the last two decades with the help of European Union funds, unlocked following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The upgrade program was supposed to finish this year, but was interrupted by the Russian invasion. Consisting of six nuclear reactors, the power plant can deliver up to 5.7 gigawatts of energy when it works at full capacity, it can feed about 4 million Ukrainian homes. At the moment only two reactors are in operation, but the plant continues to constitute one vital part of the Ukrainian electricity infrastructure.

On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine and on February 27 the first fighting began near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which in the meantime has closed two of the six reactors. On March 4, Kremlin troops seized the plant and since then theworld alarm for the danger caused by the continuous bombing so close to the nuclear reactors, while the Moscow army transformed the area into a military basebringing military vehicles into the turbine halls and planning to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian electricity grid.

From March 4 to the end of August 2022, bombing in the area continued relentlessly, while the reactors in operation were reduced to two due to the shortage of personnel and the danger of damage. Meanwhile, on 25 August, the Russians temporarily disconnected the power plant from the Ukrainian electricity gridrisking to create a radioactive disaster leaving the plant without the cooling systems at full capacity, as stated in the Guardian by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Approximately 9,000 workers out of 11,000 have chosen not to flee, to keep the reactors operating safely, despite extremely difficult working conditions, including mass detentions and assaults. According to the testimonies collected by Guardianseveral workers they were attacked and beaten by the Russian militaryenough to force some of them to be hospitalized for three months while about 200 workers were arrested.

Ukrainian engineers and workers have chosen to stay in the plant because they are the only ones able to make it workgiven that Russian engineers do not know how new systems updated with European technologies work.

The danger depends on the reckless Russian management of the plant. who wants to disconnect it from the Ukrainian network. Indeed, the presence of military vehicles inside the turbine halls, near the reactors, risk preventing the emergency vehicles from promptly intervening in case of damage or fire. Finally, the fighting in the area risks involving the infrastructure and power lines of the plant, so even if the Russians decide not to disconnect the plant, the connections could still be accidentally damaged.

Ukraine, the European Union and the United Nations have called for the immediate demilitarization of the area and the end of all fighting in the area around the power plant. However, Moscow refused to comply with these requests, only accepting the arrival of the United Nations mission in charge of assessing the physical damage of the plant, the working conditions of the personnel and checking the status of the safety and protection systems.