Europe's largest Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZAEP) fell into Russian hands in the early days of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In April 2024, a drone exploded on the roof of one of the reactors. The Russians blamed the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainians in turn said it was a Russian operation under a false flag. After the explosion, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said: “We are dangerously close to a nuclear accident”.
This is what the authoritative publication The Economist writes about in its material entitled “Monkeys with a grenade”.
IAEA observers have been on the station since summer 2022, but access is restricted by the Russian military, whose armored vehicles are stationed in the turbine rooms. From the end of 2022, the NPP will not be developed at all. Leaks of water and boron, a chemical used to control nuclear reactions, were found. Engineers tried to maintain a certain amount of electricity at the site and nearby Enerdogar by switching the three reactors between a hot shutdown, when little electricity is being produced, and a cold shutdown.
The Economist article also states that during the occupation, the Russians pressured the station's workers to obtain Russian passports and sign contracts with Rosatom, promising bonuses for doing so. Russians consider themselves “liberators”. They wanted to show that people were loyal to them and signed contracts of their own free will. However, when the bonus carrot didn't work, FSB officers visited the chief technicians. Some were sent to the basement.
Life in Energodar was becoming more and more difficult. Without a Russian passport, it was difficult to call an ambulance, see a doctor or get a prescription. And although ZNPP employees who did not sign the Russian contract still received salaries from EnergoAtom, they could not be paid in cash because the payments were in Ukrainian hryvnias. The ruble was converted into the local currency and exchange offices were closed.
More than 2 years have already passed since the occupation of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Russians, which could lead to a nuclear disaster any day. Therefore, Ukrainian nuclear power plants must operate safely and reliably under the full sovereign control of Ukraine.