How Russia is risking nuclear catastrophe with attempts to syphon power from Ukraine’s biggest plant
Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor has become a battlefield in Ukraine’s defence against Russian invaders as they risk a catastrophic meltdown in its efforts to connect it to Moscow’s national grid.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has six reactors, was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has remained a dangerous potential flashpoint for a nuclear disaster ever since.
Fighting and bombardments by both sides of the complex and the power station itself, which has been entirely occupied by Russian forces who base troops in its buildings, has forced the “cold shutdown” of the reactors.
This means that its nuclear material is not used to generate power but needs to be constantly cooled.
The fighting cut electricity from Ukraine, meaning that the cooling system had to rely entirely on diesel generators and a skeleton staff for a month.
Regular power was only restored in the last week, after the longest time that the ZNPP had been disconnected from electricity to drive its cooling systems.
Russia needs to cut the Ukrainian power link in order to install its connection into the Russian network – a long-stated ambition.
“The Russian Federation is putting in its power line, but elements of it have been successfully damaged by Ukraine,” explained Mykhailo Shuster, nuclear expert and former director of procurement at Energoatom – Ukraine’s nuclear power agency.
“Russia is now at a high level of readiness, and to connect it, the power supply from Ukraine must be interrupted.”
It is unclear whether Russia has been able to connect the Ukrainian plant to its own network over the 30-day outage. If it did so, it would then have to install converter stations to synchronize the two grids.
But the power cuts to the cooling systems, combined with the near collapse of the water supplies there after Russia blew up the Kakhova Dam – the main water source for the ZNPP – is causing jitters among local leaders.
The exiled mayor of the now-occupied Enerhodar, the town next to ZNPP, told The Independent he fears nuclear fallout could melt into the groundwater around the plant, contaminate the Dnipro River and eventually the Black Sea.
“Kakhovka dam is destroyed; there is nothing to cool it with – even if they miraculously restore the equipment in the future,” he said.
“Worst case scenario: the water will eventually evaporate from the cooling pond, and there will be nothing to cool nuclear fuel.”
