Ukraine: Description of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and its environment as of September 6, 2022
The Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant, operated by the Ukrainian staff of Energoatom, has been under the control of Russian forces since March 4, 2022. It has been recently the subject of several bombings, causing great concern about the possible consequences:
- August 5, 2022: bombing of a 330 kV transformer which led to the automatic shutdown of reactor no. 3 and the starting of its emergency generators.
- August 5, 2022: bombing and damage to a nitrogen production station.
- August 6, 2022: bombing near the spent fuel dry storage site.
- August 11, 2022: bombings damaging fire-fighting equipment, a non-radioactive effluent pumping station and radioactivity measurement sensors.
- August 22, 2022: bombing near the thermal power plant causing damage to the electrical interconnection line with the nuclear power plant.
- August 23, 2022: bombing between the nuclear power plant and the neighboring town of Energodar, resulting in fires in the vegetation near the plant.
- August 25, 2022: bombing to the north of the thermal power plant next to the nuclear power plant, resulting in vegetation fires and a temporary disconnection of the nuclear power plant from the electrical grid; emergency diesels would have started.
- August 25, 2022: bombing of an access gallery of reactor no. 2 (link with operating building no. 1), damaging water pipes and electrical links.
- August 28, 2022: bombing of the exploitation building n°1 leading to a perforation of the roof and damages in the present equipment.
- September 1, 2022: bombing of the site leading to the cutting of a 750 kV power line, the shutdown of reactor no. 5 and the starting of the emergency diesels of reactor no. 2.
- September 5, 2022: bombing near the thermal power plant which led the operator to cut the last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid.
To date, none of these bombings has resulted in radioactive releases at the site. No increase in radioactivity has been detected by the environmental monitoring networks located near the plant. The site teams intervened each time to restore the situation as far as possible.
In order to facilitate the understanding of the consequences of the recurrent events occurring at the Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant site, this note resituates the plant in its environment, describes the site and recalls the main issues related to its safety in the current context.
Download IRSN information report of September 6, 2022 (pdf)