- can their presence prevent a Chernobyl-style catastrophe?

Experts weigh up the possible consequences of an accident at the Zaporozhye facility

FILE PHOTO: A Russian serviceman stands guard near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, southeastern Ukraine. © AP Photo

A mighty explosion rattles a small town, whose residents wake up to scenes of a fire raging in the distance. Thousands of people flee their homes in what will soon become a new exclusion zone. Radioactive clouds spread across several European countries as precipitation poisons their lands, making large cities uninhabitable.

And no, nobody pushed the nuclear button. All it could take to cause a major disaster, of this sort, is continued fighting on the ground around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in a Ukrainian town. 

RT explains the dangers of shelling the Zaporozhye NPP and considers the likelihood of a new Chernobyl.

Shelling

Russian forces took control of the Zaporozhye plant back in March 2022. A major fire broke out nearby in the same month, after which the plant was shelled several times, but it was only the beginning. Recently, the volume of alarming news about the facility has been growing. 

Russia claims that the Ukrainians are deliberately targeting the hazardous site. The last attack attempt was made by Ukrainian troops on Thursday when representatives of the IAEA mission were at the station, Moscow insists. 

Over 40 motor boats, divided into two groups and carrying more than 250 Ukrainian special operations troops and foreign mercenaries, reportedly tried to land on the coast of the Kakhovka reservoir not far from Energodar, where the nuclear power plant is located.

The view shows the 4th and the 5th power units of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as Russia's military operation in Ukraine continues, in Energodar, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. © Sputnik / Konstantin Mihalchevskiy

The assailants were quickly spotted and targeted by Russia’s Su-30 jets and Ka-52 attack helicopters. Those strikes sank some 20 boats, while the rest turned and retreated. The remaining Ukrainian troops were than targeted by Russian artillery as they tried to come ashore, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said.

As a result of the attack, only one reactor out of six was operational for most of the day, officials have explained. The first four reactors were forced to shut down even earlier.

On August 25, Energoatom reported an unprecedented complete cutoff of the NPP from the Ukrainian grid. The military-civilian administration of Zaporozhye Region explained that it was caused by the emergency protection system, which automatically disconnected the main units.

“A strike by Ukraine’s forces on high-voltage power lines in the area of the Zaporozhye NPPresulted in a fire in the security zone of the 750 kV power line. The fire caused a short circuit. The emergency protection system turned off two power units followed by a power outage in the whole of the Zaporozhye Region,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Zaporozhye administration, wrote.

He says the units which were shut down last week are currently working at 60% and 80% of their capacity respectively.