Revealed: Russian plan to disconnect Zaporizhzhia
nuclear plant from grid
Plan risks catastrophic failure of cooling systems,
says head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company
Emma
Graham-Harrison in Kyiv
Wed 24 Aug
2022 19.27 BST
A detailed
plan has been drawn up by Russia to disconnect Europe’s largest nuclear plant
from Ukraine’s power grid, risking a catastrophic failure of its cooling
systems, the Guardian has been told.
World
leaders have called for the Zaporizhzhia site to be demilitarised after footage
emerged of Russian army vehicles inside the plant, and have previously warned
Russia against cutting it off from the Ukrainian grid and connecting it up to
the Russian power network.
But Petro
Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company, told the Guardian in an
interview that Russian engineers had already drawn up a blueprint for a switch
on the grounds of emergency planning should fighting sever remaining power
connections.
“They
presented [the plan] to [workers at] the plant, and the plant [workers]
presented it to us. The precondition for this plan was heavy damage of all
lines which connect Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the Ukrainian system,”
Kotin said in an interview on Ukraine’s independence day on Wednesday, with the
country mostly locked down because of the threat of Russian attacks.
He fears
that Russia’s military is now targeting those connections to make the emergency
scenario a reality. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling
the site.
“They just
started doing that, they starting all the shelling, just to take out these
lines,” Kotin said.
Other
threats to nuclear security at the plant include vehicles packed so tightly
into turbine halls that firefighters would struggle to access them if a fire
broke out, and a campaign of terror against workers who have chosen to stay at
the frontline plant.
One was
beaten to death, and another so severely injured that he needed three months to
recover. More than 200 have been detained, Kotin said.
The plant’s
electricity connections are already in a critical situation, with three of the
four main lines connecting it to Ukraine’s grid broken during the war, and two
of the three back-up lines connecting it to a conventional power plant also
down, he said.
The Russian
plan to disconnect it entirely would raise the risk of a catastrophic failure
by leaving it dependent on a single source of electricity to cool the reactors.
“You cannot just switch from one system to another immediately, you have to …
shut down everything on one side, and then you start to switch on another
side,” he said.
During a
shift between grid systems, the plant would be reliant only on a back-up
diesel-powered generator, with no further options should that fail. After only
90 minutes without power the reactors would reach a dangerous temperature.
“During
this disconnection, the plant won’t be connected to any power supply and that
is the reason for the danger,” he said. “If you fail to provide cooling … for
one hour and a half, then you will have melting already.”
Russia
seized control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in March but it is still run by
Ukrainian workers. There has been increasing alarm about Russian management of
the site in recent weeks, and pressure on Moscow to allow UN inspectors to
visit.
Kotin said
inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog could be at the plant within one or
two weeks to check on security, after progress in negotiations with Russia
about a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Kotin is
also concerned about the fire risk from vehicles packed into the turbine halls,
which sit next to the two reactors still in operation. There are 14 trucks in
one hall, and at least six in another, sources at the plant have told him.
“In case
there is a fire in the turbine hall you don’t even have a possibility to put it
out or mitigate the consequences of this fire, because your fire brigades
cannot get in, because any entry is blocked by the trucks, which are just
packed in there,” he said.
Any blaze
could then potentially spread towards the reactor buildings, where a fire would
have disastrous implications far beyond the immediate region.
“This
situation is very dangerous not only for the plant, for Ukraine, but also for
the whole world because you never can say what the weather would be like and
what the wind direction [would be].”
Many other
military vehicles are lined up under overpasses, built to house pipes and
walkways between reactor and turbine complexes, Kotin said, perhaps to provide
protection from drones.
He praised
about 9,000 workers who are still on duty at the plant, from a prewar workforce
of about 11,000. Many evacuated their families but stayed at their posts
because of the need for a skilled team to operate it.
Modernisations
to Ukraine’s nuclear plants in the wake of the Chornobyl disaster means that
although the plant was built to Soviet specifications, Russian engineers don’t
have the skills to operate it.
“Actually,
for us they are heroes, just doing their job in such unbelievable conditions,”
said Kotin, who knows the plant, and its workers well because he spent most of
his career there. He arrived as a young graduate and rose to become general
manager.
Rockets
have also landed within two dozen metres of 174 spent fuel containers housed at
the plant, which would be more vulnerable to weapons than the reactors, which
are built to withstand the impact of a passenger jet.
“It will
probably withstand two explosions of maybe two missiles on one container and
after that, it will be broken,” he said. “Actually we had a rocket came in just
10, 20 metres just from the site [where the containers are stored].”
However,
Kotin said that he hoped nuclear inspectors would be able to visit the
Zaporizhzhia plant within “one, maybe two weeks”.
“There is
progress in negotiations … there is only modalities of the mission to finally
agree between parties, and after that they will go. And actually I’ve seen some
plans that they are to go at the end of the month.”
He said he
also had confidence that Ukrainian workers who have sacrificed so much for the
plant would be able to keep it safe.
“In any
case, we won’t allow Russians to bring the world to the nuclear catastrophe and
we will do everything just to return the plant to under our full control and
operate it safely reliably, like it always been.”
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