The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and one of the 10 largest in the world, has been under constant fire during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All eyes are on the potential effects of explosions in and around the nuclear plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is closely monitoring the situation. “This situation is unstable, and we are playing with fire. We cannot continue the situation where we are one step away from the nuclear accident. The security of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is hanging by a thread, ”said IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi on Monday. The IAEA has also reported that the last reactor has been shut down and put into the safest position, but maintained that “the safety and security situation at the plant in the middle of the war zone remains uncertain.” “. According to local reports, the power plant accounts for about 20% of Ukraine’s annual electricity generation.
Britain’s Conservative British Parliamentarian Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons Defense Select Committee, has already warned that any nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant could draw NATO into a war between Russia and Ukraine.
Using publicly available information, the India Today open-source intelligence (OSINT) team directly mapped the areas affected during the shelling in and around the nuclear plant since August 1. We were able to map events Which have surfaced using MapHub chronologically within the Enerhodar region.
The Russian armed forces seized the Zaporizhzhya NPP in an incident on the night of March 4, days after the first military offensive launched by Russia. live streaming on youtube, Russia deployed its own nuclear power operator, Rosatom, previously held by Ukraine’s Energoatom, to maintain the plant. The plant has since seen several attacks from both sides, with the situation worsening in recent days.
A brief timeline of all the notable firefights and reactor shutdowns since August:
August 24: Plumes of smoke were seen in satellite imagery captured near the south from the power plant’s 750 kV transmission line.
August 25: The last two reactors (5th and 6th units) connecting the ZNPP to the Ukrainian electrical grid were shut down, so the nuclear plant was completely disconnected from Ukraine for the first time in history.
26 August: The latter two reactors were reconnected to the Ukrainian grid with additional capacity.
August 29: The neighboring areas of the nuclear reactors saw shelling, with the roof of a “special building” also damaged in the process.
September 1: Operating Unit 5 was shut down due to extensive shelling, while Unit 6 remained the only operational unit within the plant.
September 5: The same “special building” was again targeted. In addition, operating unit 6 was shut down, so the ZNPP was once again completely disconnected from the power grid.
A second backup power line was restored on Monday, providing additional external power for reactor cooling and other necessary safety operations during shutdown. After a brief visit to the site by the IAEA, the agency published its second report on Ukraine’s current nuclear situation on 6 September. According to the report, a turbine lubricating oil tank, roofs of various buildings, such as buildings for expenditure fuel transporter vehicles, special buildings containing fresh nuclear fuel and solid radioactive waste storage facilities, new training buildings, buildings where physical security systems are central The alarm station, the container where the radiation monitoring system is located and the area around the dry spent fuel storage facility, were reportedly damaged during the gunfight.
Considering the tense situation within Zaporizhzhya, the IAEA has asked both sides to declare the nuclear facility a demilitarized zone in order to prevent its situation from worsening.
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