Zaporozhye nuclear power plant under fire: what will happen to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant

The ongoing shelling of Europe’s largest Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (ZNPP) for the first time in the history of its operation led to the shutdown of Ukrainian consumers. “Vedomosti” understood what fate awaits the Zaporizhzhya NPP and whether the risks of a second Chernobyl disaster are great.

On August 26, Ukraine lost its electricity generated by the ZNPP – all six units of the station were disconnected from the energy system of Ukraine, the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise NNEGC Energoatom, which manages the station, said on Friday afternoon in its Telegram channel. Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region (territory controlled by Russia), indirectly confirmed this information on Sputnik radio: “It is very likely that this is true.” “Well, they just played out, fired more. Of the four power lines that led directly from the nuclear power plant to the territory controlled by Kyiv, only one remained intact, the rest were killed during shelling from the right bank of the Dnieper,” he said.

On the evening of Thursday, August 25, it became known that as a result of damage to the power line due to shelling, the ZNPP was de-energized for some time for the first time and all units were stopped. The press service of Energoatom reported that due to fires at the ash dumps of the Zaporizhzhya TPP, located next to the ZNPP, “the last, fourth line of communication between the NPP and the energy system of Ukraine was disconnected twice.” Three other power lines, according to the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise, were damaged earlier during the shelling.

On Friday afternoon, Energoatom reported that “work is underway to connect two reactor units to the grid.” At 14:04 Moscow time, one of them was connected to the power grid. At the same time, the head of the military-civilian administration of Energodar, where the ZNPP is located, Alexander Volga, on the air of Channel One, only confirmed the existence of an “emergency emergency situation that was prevented by automatic protection devices” and assured that electricity was “supplied to Ukraine in the normal mode”. On August 25, the head of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporizhzhya region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that two nuclear power plant units, indeed, “turned off after the protection system was triggered” due to a fire in the security zone, which provoked a short circuit on the power line. After the fire was extinguished, one unit of the nuclear power plant, according to him, was put into operation, and work was underway to launch the second unit. It was also reported that the failure of the nuclear power plant led to a power outage in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

On August 26, the Zaporizhzhya NPP came under fire again: four munitions exploded in the area of ​​the oxygen-nitrogen station, and another one in the area of ​​special building No. 1. The Russian Ministry of Defense clarified that the NPP was “fired from an American M777 howitzer west of Marganets (from the territory controlled by Kyiv. – Vedomosti). The gun was destroyed by return fire from the Russian military.

Zaporozhye NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, located on the banks of the Kakhovka reservoir. Its construction began in 1977, the first four sides were launched from 1984 to 1987. The fifth began to produce energy in 1989, and the sixth – after the collapse of the USSR, in 1995. The capacity of each of the six VVER-1000 power units is 1 GW . True, the plant reached 100% of the installed capacity for the first time only in December 2021.

ZNPP annually generates about 40 billion kWh, providing a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity needs. In March 2015, ZNPP became the first nuclear power plant in the world to generate more than 1 trillion kWh of electricity since the commissioning of the first unit (for comparison: this output is slightly less than the annual consumption of the entire Russian Federation).

Since 2001, the Zaporozhye NPP has been operating a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) with a design capacity of 380 containers, where fuel assemblies removed from the reactor are stored.

Zaporozhye NPP is connected to the power system of Ukraine by four transmission lines – three of 750 kV each and one of 330 kV. Electricity is supplied through them to the Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kherson and Odessa regions of Ukraine.

During the NMD, in February-March, Russian troops took control of part of the Zaporozhye region, including Energodar. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian military shell Energodar, as well as the surrounding villages and the territory of the power plant adjacent to the city. On August 8, the shelling of the Kakhovskaya power line led to a power surge, which caused smoke on the open switchgear of the station. It was eliminated, but the power of the fifth and sixth power units of the nuclear power plant that remained in operation decreased to 500 MW.

On August 26, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at the nuclear power plant from large-caliber artillery pieces twice in the past day.

In this regard, the Council of the State Duma of Russia called on the United Nations (UN) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “to demand from the authorities of Ukraine to immediately stop shelling” ZNPP.

It is planned that the IAEA mission may arrive at the Zaporozhye NPP before September 5. The structure will include representatives of security agencies and officials who are responsible for accounting for nuclear materials at the facility. The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said on August 26 that the presence of the agency’s experts at the ZNPP could become permanent. But he admitted that getting the experts to the station through the war zone “won’t be easy.” Representatives of the IAEA announced their intention to visit the ZNPP as early as the end of May 2022. This mission, according to Grossi, is also needed in order to make sure that the 30 tons of plutonium and 40 tons of enriched uranium stored at the power plant “are not used for other purposes.” “.

In recent months, the UN and the IAEA have repeatedly called for a cessation of active hostilities around the ZNPP in order to avoid a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster. At the same time, Grossi said back in early August that the situation around the station was “very dangerous”, and the risks were “very serious”.

An industry expert, who wished to remain anonymous, told Vedomosti that the greatest danger now is the risk of shells falling into the SNF storage facility located on the territory of the Zaporizhzhya NPP. “The design of NPP units is such that it does not imply their destruction by non-specialized ammunition,” he explains. However, he considers the probability of a complete shutdown and mothballing of the station for safety reasons high.

After the breakage of power lines connecting ZNPP with the territory of Ukraine, according to him, the load on the South Ukrainian NPP, as well as Kryvorizka TPP, DneproGES, Oleksandriyskaya TPP-3 and Ladyzhynska TPP, will increase.

Power lines running from the nuclear power plant towards the territories under the control of the Russian Armed Forces make it possible to supply electricity to the territory of the DPR and LPR as well. Balitsky, in an interview with TASS in July 2022, said that part of the electricity generated by ZNPP could be sent to Crimea after the restoration of power lines blown up in 2015 on the border with the Kherson region.

A Vedomosti source notes that even if the ZNPP is not connected to the Russian energy system after the end of the NWO, its load will be provided by the needs of nearby territories. “And the Zaporozhye region itself is rich in minerals, including those requiring energy-intensive processing,” he adds. Another interlocutor of Vedomosti in the energy market notes that 6 GW is “hardly needed” by the Russian energy system, and the approval procedure with the System Operator (the Russian energy system dispatcher) may take a long time.

Lawyers interviewed by Vedomosti say that the procedure for the transfer of rights to the Zaporizhzhya NPP from NNEGC Energoatom to the Zaporozhye region creates a “legal precedent.” “All rules are created in the moment, right now. We will witness how these rules will be established and how they will be implemented in the future,” said Dmitry Magonya, Managing Partner at Art de lex law firm.

Lawyer, international law expert Sergei Glandin explains that de jure the ZNPP remains Ukrainian, since “Kyiv, in front of the international community, represented by the IAEA, has assumed responsibility for its functioning and security”, but in fact it is Russia that “effectively controls” the territory of the ZNPP. “From the point of view of international humanitarian law, this means that the Russian Federation is responsible for the functioning of the entire infrastructure and the observance of basic human rights in this territory. But these norms do not apply to the functioning of nuclear facilities,” the lawyer says, drawing attention to the formation of a “legal vacuum” in this place. Magonya agrees that so far “the legal personality of the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye region remains in question.”

A roughly similar situation developed with the Crimean energy facilities at the beginning of 2014, when Kyiv lost control over the peninsula and the ability to manage the fuel and energy complex of the region. But almost immediately referendums were held there on the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. In the liberated territories of Ukraine, the DPR and LPR, the dates of the referendums have not yet been determined.

According to Glandin, while Russia has not officially declared to the IAEA that it is ready to assume obligations for the functioning of the ZNPP, from the point of view of international law, Kyiv is responsible for any accidents at the station. “Issues of ownership and status of ZNPP will not take shape until the signing of the interstate agreement,” he adds.

The qualification of the actions of Russia and Ukraine, according to Glandin, now lies outside the competence of the IAEA. This issue can only be considered by the UN Security Council if the situation is interpreted as a threat to international peace and security. So far, no one has submitted a relevant resolution to the Security Council. However, Russia, according to Glandin, will not pass a resolution that is negative for itself, using its veto right.