SPECIAL REPORT | CHRONICLE OF A TRAGEDY


Zaporizhzhia: Chronicle of a tragedy


At the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine armed conflict still brings the threat of a disaster that could sweep the continent. Can the nuclear industry learn lessons from the situation?


ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR PLANT CONSISTS OF six 1000 MWe VVER units. Before the war, it supplied about half of Ukraine’s nuclear power and a quarter of the country’s total electricity. It was operated by Energoatom, the national nuclear utility which ran all four Ukrainian operating nuclear plants.


At the time of the invasion, all nuclear units at the Olexiy Kovynyev


Independent expert, former reactor operator and shift supervisor, Ukraine


station and in the country were in operation. Soon, however, due to the war activity and damaging industrial infrastructure, electricity consumption in Ukraine dropped sharply, and some of the nuclear units were disconnected from the grid and put in reserve. Turning off power lines with the unloading of power units has become a regular event.


On March 4, 2020, the station and its dry storage facility


for spent fuel was captured by Russian troops, with shelling the site. A new stage of the station life began. Russian military completely controlled the plant territory and forced the plant management to adjust with them all the important issues of operation. Rosatom specialists consulted on site their military on all technical issues.


The city has serious problems with food, goods and


cash. People gradually left the city, trying first of all to move out children. The Russians committed individual acts of violence to keep everyone in fear. The staff started resigning. The conditions were unpleasant but not critical. The war was going somewhere far away, although the peals of artillery shelling in the city were sometimes heard. Several months of occupation passed.


Shelling of the Zaporizhzhia power station and the city of Energodar The city and the station are still occupied – the spring hopes that the occupation would be only temporary have not been justified. There are still large numbers of Russian military equipment and personnel on the site. In early August three unloaded units were in operation at ZNPP. The remaining units were in reserve. On 5 August, Russian troops shelled the territory of the


ZNPP site. One of the operating reactors was scrammed. Equipment and some buildings were damaged. According to the Ukrainian staff, the Rosatom employees which were present at the site left the station in advance of the shelling. Military personnel also took cover. The Ukrainian army was blamed for the shelling. The Ukrainians, apparently for humanitarian reasons, warned the Russians about the shelling and forgot to warn the station staff. On this day, everyone parted with the last illusions that a nuclear facility is sacred and inviolable, and the March shelling during the capture of the station could be dismissed as an excess of an individual in the conflict. After that day, shelling the plant and the territory


adjacent to the plant and the city became a regular event. During the later shelling, damage occurred near the spent fuel storage facilities and windows were broken in various buildings at the station. Deaths and injuries of civilians were reported. At the UN Security Council, the Russian representative said that the station and its satellite town Energodar were being shelled by the Ukrainian military and a nuclear catastrophe had not occurred only thanks to the Russian army.


Above: The IAEA mission inspects shell damage at ZNPP Photo Credit: Fredrik Dahl/IAEA


20 | November 2022 | www.neimagazine.com


Complete disconnection of the station from the network For a long time, only two units were in operation. At the end of August, after a trip of the only power line in operation, both units were disconnected from the grid. One reactor


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