Ukrainian nuclear power plant employees scramble to secure water to forestall overheating after flooding brought on by the collapse of a close-by dam drained water supplies.
Water levels within the Kakhova Reservoir, which is in regards to the same size as Utah’s Great Salt Lake, are plummeting outside the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Olexiy Konynyev, former plant operator, told NPR that the power has its own two-mile-wide “cooling pond” that’s separate from the reservoir, and Energoatom, Ukraine’s energy agency, said the pond’s water level stays stable.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the water within the pond and other parts of the plant ought to be enough to chill the plant for the subsequent few months as all six reactors have been shut down, meaning they may need less water.
Energoatom said on Friday that the last of its six reactors has undergone a chilly shutdown, a process during which all control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission response and the generation of warmth and pressure.
The opposite five were already in a cold-off state because the war continued around them.
Nevertheless, even when shut down, the radioactive fuel in reactors can generate heat for years, and the power plant will still need to make use of water to chill the spent fuel that’s in pools near the reactors, in addition to other equipment, including generators, to maintain the plant running when there will likely be no electricity.
![The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has shut down all six reactors, but will still need water.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000011959750.jpg?w=1024)
The dam holding the Kokhova Reservoir was destroyed on June 6, and since then the reservoir’s water level has dropped greater than 20 feet, while towns along the river in each Ukrainian and Russian-occupied territory have been flooded.
While it’s unclear the cause of the pain the destruction, evidence suggests that the collapse was preceded by an explosion. Seismic stations in Ukraine and Romania detected what gave the impression to be an exploding dam, as did US spy satellites, indicating that it had been blown up.
Ukraine’s security services announced on Friday intercepted the phone a call proving that a Russian “sabotage group” had broken out.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear energy safety on the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group, said the plant is just not in a right away crisis, but dwindling water supplies are straining the plant, which has already suffered power outages, artillery fire and fires.
In keeping with reports, employees on the plant were also mistreated by Russian forces, who’ve occupied the plant for over a 12 months.
“It’s sort of a slow-motion train wreck,” Lyman said.
He added that if the reactors run out of water, the fuel inside could melt, resulting in a radioactive release that will be a “slow leak” of radioactive gases from the reactor casing.