Where is Zaporizhzhia, and why is the plant important?

Ukraine has 15 functional nuclear reactors, which together supplied 51 percent of its electricity in 2020, according to the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Kyiv has relied on nuclear power to avoid energy dependence on Russia, which controls some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves. Six of those reactors are at the Zaporizhzhia plant, on the edge of Enerhodar, a city in southeastern Ukraine. The sprawling facility — the largest of its kind in Europe — is located on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, in an area controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces control the opposite side of the river. Zaporizhzhia’s reactors began operating between 1984 and 1995. Together, they can produce 5,700 megawatts of electricity at full capacity. The plant is a major source of nuclear power for Ukraine: Before the war, it produced one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity and nearly half of its nuclear energy.

What’s happened to the plant under Russian occupation?

Russian forces seized the plant in early March 2022, soon after the invasion began, and set part of the complex on fire with one of their projectiles. The incident raised global alarm and the IAEA. In June of that year, the IAEA said that it recorded sporadic interruptions in data transmission from Zaporizhzhia, where safeguard surveillance systems were installed before the war to detect the misuse of nuclear material or technology. Over the summer, the battles between Russian forces, which control the plant, and Ukrainian troops intensified in the area. In recent weeks, frequent shelling around the facility added urgency to the IAEA’s efforts to reach Zaporizhzhia. The inspectors finally arrived on Sept. 1 after weeks of negotiations. The team inspected Zaporizhzhia, interviewed the site’s Ukrainian workers and announced a two-man permanent monitoring mission. Russian forces control the plant but it is staffed and managed mostly by Ukrainians, who have maintained operations under difficult conditions , the IAEA said. In a report, the IAEA said that staff at the facility are “subject to constant high stress and pressure,” which “could lead to increased human error with implications for nuclear safety.” As of last year, just one of Zaporizhzhia’s six reactors was still supplying power to the Ukrainian grid. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking the site, trading blame for shelling that damaged parts of the facility . Zelensky has called for the IAEA to take “permanent control” of the plant. But Russia has rejected calls, including from the United Nations, to create a demilitarized zone there. The IAEA has since returned to the site but has not forged a deal to secure it. “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment,” Grossi warned over the weekend, amid evacuations from the area, as Ukraine prepared a spring offensive.

What’s the worst that could happen?

The chief concern is a nuclear meltdown. Meltdowns occur when fuel in a reactor isn’t adequately cooled. The uranium in the fuel rods melts and, if there are leaks in the building, can cause radioactive material to be released into the environment. An IAEA delegation that visited Zaporizhzhia in September 2022 documented damages to facilities, including one that houses the solid radioactive waste storage facility. The building containing the plant’s central alarm station was also damaged, the report said. Radiation is a major health and environmental danger: It is impossible to see or smell but can remain a silent threat for years, leading to cancer and other health problems, experts say. The prospect of a nuclear accident holds particular resonance in Ukraine, the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster that led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents and sent radioactive material across Europe. A similar disaster at Zaporizhzhia could spread radioactive material across much of Ukraine and possibly to other countries, according to a simulation by Ukraine’s national weather service. The European Union said it would send 5 million potassium iodide tablets to Zaporizhzhia at Kyiv’s request in case local residents get exposed to radiation. “Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said last year. Grossi told the AP on Aug. 3 that each of the seven pillars of nuclear safety had been violated at the plant. In early September, the IAEA said the plant was understaffed, had suffered damages to its nuclear facilities from shelling and was at higher risk of disaster due to the presence of Russian troops. According to James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the reactors at Zaporizhzhia are protected by reinforced concrete shells, and a direct munitions hit on a reactor remains unlikely. The biggest risk, he said, comes from fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that cuts off the plant’s electricity supply. Nuclear plants rely on electricity to keep cool — and Ukraine bolstered safety measures at its facilities after the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan in 2011 The new system was tested last summer when Zaporizhzhia lost its connection to the power grid at least twice, according to Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the shelling that damaged the transmission network. The plant’s diesel generators kicked in to sustain critical operations, Zelensky said in a speech on Aug. 25, staving off catastrophe. Although the generators can still function and have enough fuel to keep them running for 10 days in emergencies, the delivery of diesel to the site has been “complicated” by the ongoing fighting, the IAEA said Tuesday. In peacetime, the likelihood of all of the cooling systems failing “would be very low,” Acton said. “But in wartime, you could plausibly imagine a series of events that causes a major accident.” “Nuclear power plants are simply not designed to be in war zones,” he said. John Hudson, Andrew Jeong, Kostiantyn Khudov, Siobhán O’Grady and Adela Suliman contributed to this report.

World

What to know about Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

By Claire Parker

and

Erin Cunningham

Updated May 8, 2023 at 7:27 p.m. EDT|Published August 20, 2022 at 1:04 p.m. EDT

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Aug. 19. (AP)

Rocket and mortar attacks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine have raised fears of a potential radioactive disaster there for months, prompting world leaders and even Pope Francis to plead for calm.

Russian forces control the plant, which is connected to Ukraine’s power grid. But blackouts have fueled concerns about a possible nuclear meltdown.

“Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last summer. Nearly a year later, the situation remains dire.

Moscow and Kyiv have each blamed the other for the deteriorating conditions at Zaporizhzhia, the largest facility of its kind in Europe. Teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been allowed limited access to the site, but the U.N. watchdog has not been able to secure a deal to keep the nuclear materials there safe.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi has visited the facility during the war, most recently in March, crossing from Ukrainian to Russian-occupied territory. He urged a focus on protecting the facility, even if fighting in the area could not be stopped entirely.

On May 8, Russian authorities said they were preparing to evacuate about 3,100 staff from areas in and around the facility, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear operator said, amid fear that a Ukrainian spring offensive could lead to fighting that would damage the plant. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of sheltering forces around the facility.

Deal 'evolving' to protect Ukrainian nuclear plant at risk of catastrophe

Global anxiety over the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant continues to mount as Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of firing at the site. (Video: The Washington Post)

Warnings of attack on Ukraine nuclear plant set the world on edge

Here’s what to know about the Zaporizhzhia plant and the risks of fighting there: