SPECIAL REPORT | ZAPORIZHIA
Above left: No significant damage to the Zaporizhia units has been reported but shelling has damaged nearby buildings Above right: Russian military staff attacking an empty police station on the first day of the occupation
173 casks of 24 cassettes each. No changes or damage was
detected and mesh fences were mounted above the storage site to protect the casks against shell fragments and debris. No new additions are anticipated. Before the war, the plant had four 750 kV power lines plus an auxiliary 330 kV line connected to the Zaporizhia thermal power plant. This represents a good level of power supply redundancy in the event of an emergency. In recent months, the plant has been supplied through a single main line and the auxiliary one. From time to time, due to missile attacks, even hundreds of kilometres from the plant, one of the lines is disconnected, leaving only one line remaining – in peacetime this situation would be considered almost critical although almost normal since the war began. During the occupation, the station experienced eight
complete blackouts, two of them when two units were operating at full capacity and the rest when the units were shut down. The plant had no reportable problems during these periods although a complete blackout is considered a dangerous situation for nuclear safety. During these blackouts emergency diesel generators (20 x 6kV units in total) started and supplied the safety systems.
Shelling and incidents For much of the last two years, the station has suffered several shelling attacks, with missiles and mines hitting
buildings and landing in the station grounds. No critical damage or injuries have been reported and in recent months there has been no shelling of the station or surrounding areas. In November 2023 Energoatom announced a primary-
to-secondary reagent leak incident at unit 5 in the hot shutdown state, “due to the incompetence of the Russian staff” and improper operation of water clean-up filters. The borated water of the primary circuit entered the turbine deaerator and all steam generators. This incident was not a steam generator leak. Over the last year, Energoatom has reported steam
generator leaks at the units in hot state shutdown several times. Russia didn’t report this and didn’t comment. While the plant in shutdown mode doesn’t create the
considerable radiation and nuclear risks associated with an operating unit, long-term risks to the equipment remain.
Significantly, there were some 11,000 employees at the plant before the war. Now only about 2,600 employees have signed contracts with Rosatom to work at the plant. In recent months it was known about 800 employees refused to sign the contracts and continue to work for Ukraine. This staff situation is unsatisfactory given there were regular cases reported in the autumn when only one
Above left: The VVER-440 Unit 2 at the Rivne NPP has been loaded with Westinghouse fuel Above right: Khmelnytski’s two 1000 MWe reactors are operating in Ukraine
24 | March 2024 |
www.neimagazine.com
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