Europe’s largest nuclear power station continues to receive water from the dam after it was destroyed, the UN’s nuclear agency, the IAEA, said, dismissing the dam’s operator’s claim that it could no longer supply water.
“Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant continues to pump cooling water from the Kakhovka dam,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. Hours earlier, the executive director of the company that operates the Ukrhydroenergo dam, Igor Syrota, said the water level in the dam had dropped “below the critical point of 12.7 meters”. In other words, he could no longer “supply the tanks of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizia to cool the plant,” he said on Ukrainian television.
Located on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, the Nova Kakhovka Dam is a reservoir that supplies cooling water to the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant some 150 kilometers upstream.
The IAEA said in a statement that its experts had been informed that after an analysis, the facility determined “that it should be able to pump water from the reservoir even after the level drops below 12.7 meters”. “.
“So far, the results indicate that the pumps can probably continue to operate even if the level drops to about 11 meters or possibly lower,” the IAEA said.
The agency said the analysis included interviews with people “who have experience and knowledge”.
“In these difficult and challenging conditions, it will take a little longer for us to switch to alternative water sources,” said IAEA Director Rafael Grossi.
Alternatives, including a large cooling tank next to the plant, could provide the plant with the necessary cooling water “for several months”, Grossi said. “It is therefore vital that this cooling reservoir remains intact. I appeal to all parties not to do anything to damage it,” Grossi said at a meeting of the agency’s board of directors.
“However, the overall nuclear safety and security situation remains very precarious and potentially dangerous,” added Grossi, who plans to visit the plant next week.
The extent of the damage remains unknown and it is also unclear “when and at what level the reservoir will stabilize”.
IAEA experts requested access, including the location where the water level in the reservoir is measured, to “independently verify the condition of the systems that supply cooling water” to the plant, Grossi said. The IAEA has a team of experts at the center.
The plant’s staff has already taken measures to limit water consumption and use it only for “essential activities related to nuclear safety,” Grossi said earlier.
The plant’s reactors are now shut down, but still require cooling water to ensure a nuclear disaster doesn’t happen.
Grossi has repeatedly called for the plant to be protected as bombings have occurred nearby which have disrupted vital power supplies.
Nuclear safety organization warns of risk of core meltdown
But there is more disturbing news. The cooling reservoir of the Zaporizh nuclear power plant itself is at risk of collapse due to the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, warns a report from the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), based in Paris.
Without the reservoir on the other side to compensate for the internal pressure, water from the cooling reservoir could breach the surrounding dike, according to France’s nuclear safety organization, quoted by Reuters.
Source: DN
