Pumps defy critical mark
Reservoir continues to cool Zaporizhia NPP
06/09/2023, 00:40 am
Most recently, the Ukrainian operator of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant warned: the level of the Kakhovka reservoir is so low that the nuclear power plant can no longer be cooled. The International Atomic Energy Agency later disagreed. There is more time than expected to search for an alternative.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia continues to receive water from the reservoir for cooling the fuel elements even after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam. “The Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia continues to pump cooling water from the Kakhovka reservoir,” said one in the evening Statement of the IAEA.
An examination showed that the pumping process “can continue even if the level falls below the current threshold of 12.7 meters”, which had previously been classified as critical, the UN authority explained and set a new critical value water level of “eleven meters or even below”.
This gives us “a little more time before we may have to switch to other sources of supply,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, who will visit Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine next week.
If the dam is no longer intact, the power plant can fall back on “a large catchment basin nearby, as well as smaller reserves and wells on site that can supply cooling water for several months,” Grossi said. Nevertheless, the situation remains “very uncertain and potentially dangerous,” he emphasized.
Reactors already shut down
The Ukrainian operator of the nuclear power plant had previously warned that the water in the reservoir was no longer sufficient to cool the reactors in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, around 150 kilometers away. The water level of the lake has fallen “below the critical 12.70 meter mark,” said the head of the Ukrainian operating company Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Syrota, on Ukrainian television.
The reactors of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant have already been shut down. However, the fuel in the reactor cores and in the storage pools must be constantly cooled to prevent core meltdown and the release of radioactivity into the environment.
The Kachowka dam on the Dnipro in Russian-occupied territory was partially destroyed in an explosion on Tuesday night, and large amounts of water escaped. Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of being responsible for the incident.