The attack led by Russia against a building of the Zaporijia plant, one of the four Ukrainian plants, in the night from Thursday to Friday, has raised many questions and worries around the world.
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“This is an unprecedented situation,” according to the words of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grosssi at a press point Friday, March 4th. Never in fact a conflict of such intensity had unfolded in a state as nuclearized as Ukraine. Russia’s attack on a building of the Zaporijia plant, one of four Ukrainian plants, in the night from Thursday to Friday, has raised many questions and worries around the world.
- What is the situation in the Zaporijia power station?
If it remains “extremely worrying”, according to the IAEA, the attack did not have, at this stage, consequences in terms of nuclear safety. The projectile pulled by the Russian forces damaged a building located in the premises of the largest central of Europe, located in the south-east of Ukraine, injuring two people. But none of the six reactors were touched: the building in which a fire was declared to be about a kilometer away. “The fire has absolutely not affected the safety system of the six reactors,” confirms the Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Institute (IRSN). No increase in radioactivity has been observed by monitoring systems, always operational.
Friday, March 4 In the morning, only one of the six reactors – VVER-type Russian design units -, the number 4 reactor, produced electricity operating at about 60% of its capabilities. The reactors 2 and 3 were placed at the judgment after the attack; The reactor 1 had been stopped on February 27 for a scheduled maintenance operation; and the reactors 5 and 6 had been put in reserve since February 24, according to the Energoatom operator.
If Ukrainian staff continued on Friday to ensure the functioning of the reactors, the Russian forces had taken control of the premises. The Zaporijia plant is a strategic site and an essential infrastructure for Ukraine: to master it amounts to controlling an important part of the country’s electricity production (about 20%). “This plant, positioned around the large DNIEPR basin, offers access to a hydraulic resource, observes Teva Meyer, lecturer at the University of Haute-Alsace and specialist in nuclear geopolitics. The second interest in Russians, C It has an important logistics center with a sorting station. These railway lines may be interesting to move troops or equipment. “
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