Cooling pool units at the Zaporozhye NPP in Energodar. Photo: Sputnik.
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant has been subjected to constant Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks for over two years, ever since it fell into the hands of Russian forces in March 2022. Russia has warned the world’s nuclear safety watchdog and Kiev’s Western sponsors that the attacks threaten to unleash a nuclear crisis in the heart of Europe.
Three employees of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant were wounded in Sunday’s Ukrainian drone attack, with one of them now in serious condition, Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency has reported.
Rosatom condemned the “unprecedented” attack and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to immediately respond to and condemn Ukraine’s actions.
“Rosatom is calling on the leadership of the IAEA and Director General Rafael Grossi personally, as well as the governments of EU countries, to immediately respond to the direct threat to the safety of the Zaporozhye NPP and categorically condemn the attempt to escalate the situation around the largest nuclear power plant in Europe,” the agency said.
The ZNPP’s press service announced earlier in the day that kamikaze drones had struck the canteen sector of the plant, damaging a truck containing food, with a second strike reported in a a cargo loading/unloading area.
Rosatom says a third drone hit the dome of the ZNPP’s sixth power unit.
The attacks was said to have begun a mere 20 minutes after IAEA experts inspected the plant.
The drone attacks did not result in any critical damage, and radiation levels remain stable and do not exceed natural background values, Rosatom said.
Situated on the left bank of the Dnepr River, the ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and one of the ten largest in the world, with its six reactors capable of generating up to 42,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year.
Employees of Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Station Urge Kiev to Stop Attacks, Warn of Disaster
Controlled by Russian forces since March of 2022 and formally incorporated into Russia in October 2022 after a regional referendum, the ZNPP has been under regular shelling and drone attacks by Ukrainian forces situated on the Dnepr’s right bank for over two years.
Russia invited IAEA specialists to put inspectors on the ground at the site in September 2022 in a bid to restrain Ukrainian attacks, which have nevertheless persisted.
Along with shelling, the ZNPP has faced other threats, including risks to water used for cooling as a result of a Ukrainian attack targeting the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023, resulting in declining water levels in the critical Kakhovka Reservoir.
The Russian Defense Ministry warned in August 2022 that if ZNPP were to suffer catastrophic damage, a nuclear catastrophe dwarfing Chernobyl could be unleashed, contaminating most of Ukraine, much of Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries in the region and across Europe with nuclear radiation.
Fortunately, such a scenario has thus far been avoided, in part due to the ingenuity and heroism of the ZNPP’s staff, and in part due to the plant’s highly sturdy Soviet-era design to be able to withstand heavy bombing or even a nuclear attack.
(Sputnik) by Ilya Tsukanov
