Although the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir has fallen below a critical threshold, the reactors of the Zaporizhia NPP can be further cooled. The IAEA came to this conclusion. Heavy fighting is reported from southern Ukraine.
Although the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir has fallen below the critical mark as a result of the destruction of the dam, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on the southern bank is still able to continue cooling its fuel elements. Cooling water will continue to be pumped out of the lake, said a statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Grossi sees supplies secured for months
A check has shown that the pumping process “can continue” if the level falls below the threshold of 12.70 meters, which had previously been classified as critical, the UN agency said and set a water level as the new critical value of “eleven meters or even under”.
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.
Nuclear power plant operator warned of “dead spot”
On Thursday, the Ukrainian operator of the nuclear power plant warned that the water in the reservoir was no longer sufficient to cool the reactors. The level is now 12.50 meters, which is “below the dead center of 12.70 meters,” said the head of the Ukrainian operating company Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Syrota, on Ukrainian television.
According to the company’s current figures from Friday morning, the water is now 11.70 meters. The water drops about a meter in 24 hours. The state-owned company also pointed out that the dam wall, which has not yet completely collapsed, continues to burst. The aim now is to dam the water of the Dnipro in the reservoirs above the Kachowka station in order to have reserves for the summer.
Nuclear plant has cooling ponds
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located around 150 kilometers north of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River. The structure was partially destroyed on Tuesday night, and since then large amounts of water have been escaping from the reservoir and have been flooding parts of southern Ukraine ever since.
The reactors of the nuclear power plant occupied by Russia 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 lowering of the water level there will make the cooling of the decommissioned reactors more complicated in the future. There is no acute danger yet, because the nuclear plant has artificially created cooling ponds.
The Kachowka dam was built in the 1950s, on the one hand to generate electricity from hydropower and on the other hand to ensure the irrigation of the fertile fields in southern Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the drinking water supply in Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, is not at risk from the dam breach. The reservoirs there are well filled and would last 500 days, the RIA news agency quoted him as saying.
The peninsula in the Black Sea is usually supplied with water from the Kachowka reservoir via a canal. Ukraine had blocked the canal after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, leading to acute water shortages in Crimea. This ended after Russian troops took control of the canal in March 2022.
Ukraine lays telephone recording as proof
Both sides continue to hold each other responsible for the destruction of the Kachowka dam in recent weeks. Ukraine has accused Russian troops of mining and then blowing up the dam.
The Ukrainian secret service SBU has now published an audio recording of a conversation in which a Russian soldier is supposed to admit the crime. A man can be heard saying that a Russian sabotage group was responsible for the attack. Whether the recording is genuine was not independently verifiable. On the other hand, Russia claims that the dam was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and shortly thereafter occupied large parts of the Cherson region.
Meanwhile, in the part of the Kherson region currently controlled by Ukraine, the flood water dropped by 20 centimeters compared to the previous day, according to the Ukrainian military governor of the region, Olexander Prokudin. The level showed 5.38 meters on Friday. 32 villages and more than 3600 houses are under water. More than 2000 people and hundreds of animals were brought to safety. Prokudin called on people to leave their flooded homes.
Russia wants attacks repelled have
Meanwhile, fierce fighting broke out again in southern and eastern Ukraine, according to Russian sources. A Russian military spokesman said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in the Zaporizhia region and eight in Donetsk. There are artillery and infantry battles as well as drone attacks. Russian military bloggers wrote in their posts about intense fighting on the front in Zaporizhia near the city of Orikhiv. Ukraine is trying to break through defense lines there and drive a wedge between Russian forces.
Russia said such attempts had been thwarted in several places this week. President Vladimir Putin was informed about this by the military leadership. The government in Moscow presented the latest development as Ukraine’s long-awaited large-scale counter-offensive and stressed that it would be repulsed.
Ukraine accuses Russia of spreading false information. The “New York Times” reported, citing three high-ranking US government officials, that the counter-offensive is already underway. After Ukraine received billions in military aid from the West, the success or failure of the counter-offensive is considered a factor in deciding on further aid.