The Russian news agency “Tass” quoted Rinat Karcha, advisor to the director of the Russian nuclear energy company, “Rosenergo Atom”, as saying that “the Ukrainian Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is controlled by Russia, was bombed by Ukraine. 15 shells were fired.”
He added that the shells were fired near a dry nuclear waste depot, and a building containing new quantities of spent nuclear fuel, explaining that no radioactive emissions were detected.
Mutual accusations
The Zaporizhia plant is the focus of mutual accusations between Russia and Ukraine, as the Ukrainian Energy Agency announced, on November 3, that the nuclear plant would stop completely after it was damaged by what it described as “Russian bombing.”
At the time, Kyiv said that in recent days Russia had intensified its bombing of the area where the station is located.
The pro-Moscow authorities in Zaporizhia announced earlier that Russian forces had thwarted an attempt by the Ukrainian army to restore the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear plant.
The Ukrainian nuclear energy company, Energoatum, also stated that the power was cut off from the plant after the Russian bombing.
The company said that the Russian bombing destroyed the remaining high-pressure lines, which means that the plant is now operating using only fuel-powered generators.
She added that the plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, has enough fuel to run generators for 15 days.
Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant
- The station is located on the edge of the city of Energodar in southeastern Ukraine.
- The station has been designed since the times of the former Soviet Union and its construction began in 1980.
- The station contains 6 reactors called “hydro-hydro capacity VVIR-1000 V-320” reactors.
- The reactors are cooled with water and their neutrons are also calmed down with water. They operate with uranium-235, which has an estimated half-life of more than 700 million years.
- Its sixth reactor was brought online in 1995.
- It is the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest power plants in the world.
- Each of the six Zaporizhya units has a net capacity of 950 MW, or a total of 5.7 GW covering 20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity consumption.
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