Nuclear power plants as a weapon of war
This is the situation in the Ukrainian nuclear power plants
By Christian Herrmann
3/12/2022 8:57 am
According to the International Energy Agency (IAEA), Ukraine is the world’s seventh largest producer of nuclear energy. The country operates a total of 15 reactors at four locations – which Russia seems to be using as a strategic weapon after its invasion. Russian troops have already captured the Chernobyl nuclear ruins and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia. Troop movements were also reported not far away, at the South Ukraine nuclear power plant. Above all, a cut power supply causes concern. In the west of the country, on the other hand, the situation is comparatively calm – for now.
Chernobyl
The nuclear ruins at Chernobyl were captured by Russian troops on the first day of the invasion and have been under their control ever since. More than 200 technical workers and security guards are locked on the premises. They now work 16 days at a time without relief. Typically, more than 2,000 people work in rotating shifts in the restricted area. According to the IAEA, there is no connection to the monitoring systems of the nuclear ruins. Among other things, this is used to determine whether radioactive material is escaping.
It is still unclear whether Chernobyl is supplied with electricity. On Wednesday, a power line in the ruins was damaged by shelling. Russia announced on Thursday that Belarusian experts had restored the supply. That’s not the case, according to Ukraine’s nuclear regulator on Friday. Since communication with the Ukrainian staff on site no longer works, even via e-mail, the IAEA cannot assess whether the power outage has been resolved.
Electricity is needed in the old reactor, among other things, to be able to cool the fuel elements of the three decommissioned reactors. Diesel generators are available for emergencies, and according to Ukrainian sources, their tanks are used up after 48 hours.
Zaporizhia
Russian troops occupied Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after a firefight on March 4th. At the time of the Russian attack, three out of six reactors were already being overhauled. Two others, Blocks 2 and 3, were shut down. Block 4 remained in operation. Block 2 has meanwhile been ramped up again to almost full capacity.
According to Ukraine, the nuclear power plant will continue to be operated by regular personnel. The state-owned operator Energoatom announced on Friday that there were no changes in radiation levels. However, the staff would be pressured by Russian troops. “All employees are thoroughly checked by armed terrorists upon arrival. This disrupts work and jeopardizes security,” she explained.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko went one step further. He claimed on Facebook earlier this week that staff are being held hostage and being tortured by Russian troops. According to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, even the Russian occupation contradicts the international safety concept for nuclear power plants.
Grossi offered to travel personally to Zaporizhia, Chernobyl or any other nuclear site in Ukraine to negotiate nuclear facility security. On Thursday he met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Antalya, Turkey, to discuss the issue. Accordingly, both sides are “ready” to cooperate on the safety of nuclear facilities.
On Friday, however, Energoatom reported that Russia claimed the occupied nuclear power plant for itself. The employees have been told that it now belongs to the Russian state-owned company Rosatom, the state-owned energy supplier of Ukraine said.
South Ukraine
The southern Ukraine nuclear power plant is located around 350 kilometers south of the capital Kyiv and 450 kilometers west of Zaporizhia near the small town of Yuzhnoukrainsk. With its three reactors, it generates about half as much energy as Zaporizhia. According to Ukrainian information, it should be the next target of the Russian troops after Zaporizhia. The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior had reported that they were already on their way there – and that they are only 30 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, as Energoatom boss Petro Kotin said in the “New York Times“explained. However, this message was already eight days ago.
Khmelnytskyi
The Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant is located in western Ukraine. Blocks 1 and 2 are in operation. The construction of blocks 3 and 4 also started in the 1980s, but was interrupted in 1990. Subsequently, Russia and Ukraine regularly discussed completion, but all agreements on this were canceled in 2015 after the Russian annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In November 2020, work resumed with support from the EU.
Two ammunition depots are said to have been attacked in the Khmelnytskyi region on February 24, the first day of the Russian invasion. Since then there have been no further reports of Russian attacks.
Rivne
The Rivne Nuclear Power Plant is located in northwestern Ukraine, not far from the Khmelnytskyi NPP and the Belarusian border. Fighting was reported from the region on the second day of the invasion. According to reports, there were two Russian airstrikes on the airport in the city of Rivne, but they were unsuccessful.
In a Report by the American broadcasting platform NPR the power plant director explained last Tuesday that there had been no attempt by Russian troops to take the reactor. Accordingly, the nuclear power plant is still in operation
On Friday, the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications said it could not rule out that Belarus would also launch an attack on Ukraine in the near future. On Twitter said the Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko citing the armed forces that the target of the possible invasion was the city of Rivne.
What does Russia want with the nuclear power plants?
There are two assumptions, both of which ultimately amount to blackmail as a tactic of war. One possibility is that Russia wants to cut off the power supply to Ukraine by seizing the nuclear power plants and thus force the leadership in Kyiv to capitulate. This is particularly conceivable because the half of the stream generated in Ukraine by nuclear power. “If they control power generation in the south, they control the entire south,” warns Energoatom boss Kotin.
The second possibility is emphasized very often and very clearly by the Ukrainian armed forces: They do not expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his nuclear weapons, but suspect that he could provoke a second nuclear accident: “Putin will not use nuclear weapons, but he threatens to make Zaporizhia the next Chernobyl,” said a representative of the Ukrainian military during a visit to NPR in Rivne.