Ukraine on Sunday began shutting down the last operational reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a safety procedure that engineers carried out after ensuring that external power could run the power plants. critical cooling needed to prevent nuclear incidents, the country’s nuclear regulator said.
The move is intended to bring the last of six operating reactors to safety as hostilities swirl around the facility in southern Ukraine. But it also means that if the plant is again cut off from external power, as it has been at least twice in the past three weeks, it will need to rely on diesel generators, which can run out of fuel, to power safety devices. .
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator, Energoatom, said in a statement: “A decision has been taken to shut down unit 6 and switch it to the safest state – shutdown of the air conditioning.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said that its two supervisors at the plant had been notified of the move and noted that the restoration of the backup power line room for the complex means it has “the power required for reactor cooling and other safety functions. “
Last week, shelling cut off a transmission line that supplies external power to the plant – which is occupied by Russian troops but operated by Ukrainian engineers – disconnect it from the national grid of Ukraine. Ukrainian engineers used a working plant reactor to power the plant’s cooling and safety systems because that is more reliable than using diesel generators, Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said in an interview.
The plant has since been reconnected to the national grid. That allows engineers to start shutting down a working reactor, which would put it in a safer state than when it was “hot” or actively producing energy. The remaining five reactors are operational.
But the factory is far from the forest. The company’s statement notes that the risk of further damage to power lines “remains high” and if the plant is forced to rely on generators for critical cooling functions, the length of time they can last. can run “limited by technological resources and the amount of diesel fuel available. “
The shutdown of all reactors also means that a country facing a challenging winter will not be able to provide a vital source of electricity. Before the war, this power plant provided 20% of Ukraine’s electricity. However, energy officials say damage to power lines from the plant was so extensive during the war that it was unlikely it provided a reliable source of electricity, they said.
International concern about the safety of the plant is growing as it has been repeatedly peeled for the past month. Russian forces have turned the vast complex into a fortress, parking military equipment near the reactors and garrisoning hundreds of soldiers at the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a team of scientists to the plant more than a week ago, issuing a report calling for the creation of a safe zone around it. But the agency does not have the authority to order the Russians to leave. Despite placing two screens at the site, shelling continued.
