Shelling Hits Nuclear Plant in Ukraine

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A reactor at Europe's largest nuclear power plant (NPP) in war-torn Ukraine was taken offline in recent days after shelling hit high-voltage power lines at Zaporozhye.

Located in the southeast of the country, the Zaporozhye plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, but only two of its six reactors are currently in operation. Russian armed forces took control of the plant in March, shortly after they invaded Ukraine in February. They have been occupying it since. Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the shelling, but independent western reports claimed that Russia is launching attacks from the plant, knowing that Ukraine forces will not fire at a nuclear plant.

"Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing," warned United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "I hope that those attacks will end, and at the same time I hope that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will be able to access the plant."

The director general of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has called it a highly volatile and dangerous situation. "I'm extremely concerned by the shelling...at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond. The IAEA has received information about this serious situation--the latest in a long line of increasingly alarming reports from all sides. According to Ukraine, there has been no damage to the reactors themselves and no radiological release. However, there is damage elsewhere on the site."

Zaporozhye Nuclear Power is home to six VVER-1000 Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) supplied by Atommash. The first unit started commercial operation in 1984 with the final unit starting up in 1995. The country has 15 reactors in total, generating just over half of the country's power. Ukraine informed the IAEA that 10 reactors are currently connected to the grid, including two at the ZNPP, three at the Rivne NPP, three at the South Ukraine NPP, and two at the Khmelnitsky NPP.

Last year, Industrial Info reported that construction had begun on two new nuclear units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, as part of Ukraine's efforts to create an "energy bridge" with Europe. Work recommenced on units 3 and 4, 30 years after work was stopped by a moratorium against new nuclear power by the government of the time, following the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986. At that time, units 3 and 4 were 75% and 28% completed, respectively. Both units are designed for a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW). There were also plans to build a new unit at the Rivne plant to replace the two older units there. For additional information, see Jan 20, 2021, article - Ukraine Nuclear Projects Key to European 'Energy Bridge' .

At the start of the war in February, Industrial Info was tracking more than $28 billion worth of active power-generation projects within Ukraine, including about $1 billion worth already under construction.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing active power-generation projects across Ukraine, by fuel type.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can click here for a list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in the article, and click here for a list of related plant profiles.

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