Ukrainian forces hit Zaporozhye plant 12 times, nuclear cooling & waste storage amongst areas hit

TASS
Sun, 20 Nov 2022 21:33 UTC

© . REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

FILE PHOTO: A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the town of Nikopol, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine November 7, 2022.

The Ukrainian armed forces have carried out 12 strikes against the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) on Saturday, for the first time since September, Renat Karchaa, an advisor to the director general of Russia's Rosenergoatom company, said in a televised interview with Rossiya-24 news channel.

"Twelve strikes hit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from 5.15 p.m. to 5.41 p.m. We mean the perimeter of the plant, but not the industrial zone or any other areas adjacent to the plant," Karchaa said.

Karchaa pointed out that the splash pool, which is part of the NPP cooling system, was hit six times, two more impacts were recorded in the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel and three more strikes were documented near Checkpoint 2.

"The bombardment was massive indeed," said the advisor to the Rosenergoatom CEO. "The plant has not been a target since late September," he added.

Karchaa emphasized that there were no casualties among the personnel.

"Today it ended up with damage and destruction that will be clarified tomorrow morning," he said. "Today is Saturday, so there are far fewer personnel at the plant than on weekdays. And luckily, there were no casualties, as it ended up with just damage," he added.

Karchaa warned that such shelling might trigger nuclear contamination.

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe. Russia took control of it at the end of February during its special military operation. Currently the plant's six energy units have been switched to cold shutdown mode since the facility was being regularly shelled by Ukrainian troops. In September, following a visit by the IAEA's mission, the agency urged the creation of a security protection zone around the plant to prevent emergency situations due to hostilities. Currently, the discussion of the security zone's geographic parameters is underway.

Comment: Footage of the aftermath attack from an RT article:

Reuters reports with commentary from the UN and IAEA who claim they don't know who's responsible:

U.N. warns: 'You're playing with fire!'

[...]

"The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing," said IAEA head Rafael Grossi. "Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you're playing with fire!"

Citing information provided by plant management, the IAEA team on the ground said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the site, but none of them critical for nuclear safety and security so far.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant provided about a fifth of Ukraine's electricity before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, and has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times. It has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing Uranium 235.

The reactors are shut down but there is a risk that nuclear fuel could overheat if the power that drives the cooling systems was cut.

And, as we read in the article from TASS, the splash pool was targeted (or at the very least it was nearly hit).

Shelling has repeatedly cut power lines.

SIDES SWAP BLAME

Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine fired shells at power lines supplying the plant, while TASS reported some of the site's storage facilities had been hit by Ukrainian shelling, quoting an official from Russian nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom.

"They shelled not only yesterday, but also today, they are shelling right now," said Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosenergoatom's CEO, adding that any artillery attack at the site posed a threat to nuclear safety.

Karchaa said the shells had been fired near a dry nuclear waste storage facility and a building that houses fresh spent nuclear fuel, but that no radioactive emissions had currently been detected, according to TASS.

It said that Russia had targeted the infrastructure necessary to restart parts of the plant in an attempt to further limit Ukraine's power supply.

Ukraine is already suffering blackouts, Russia doesn't need to risk the safety of itself and Europe by shelling the plant to achieve that. Kiev, on the other hand, is extremely desperate.

RT reports:

"It is impossible to assess the consequences of the shelling because there is a danger of new attacks,"

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose team is monitoring the situation on the ground, said that "more than a dozen blasts were heard within a short period of time" on Sunday. It added that experts could see some of the explosions from their windows.

RT reports that Russia destroyed an aircraft engine facility, and munitions depot:

The Russian military has targeted the Motor Sich plant in the city of Zaporozhye, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"A high-precision strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces in the city of Zaporozhye has destroyed a line assembling engines for aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force," the Russian military said.

While the statement did not elaborate on when exactly the strike took place, the attack on the facility apparently occurred early Saturday. According to Vladimir Rogov, a senior Zaporozhye Region official, the strikes targeted an ammunition depot in the city, as well as a manufacturing line that produces aircraft engines, including those used in Turkish Bayraktar attack drones.

The official also shared unverified footage on his Telegram channel taken amid the strikes, with the videos purporting to show multiple blasts and a massive fire at the site.

Zaporozhye Region, as well as three other former Ukrainian territories, officially became part of Russia in early October following referendums that saw the majority of residents vote in favor of accession. Kiev and its Western backers have rejected the referendums, dismissing them as "sham" elections and the city of Zaporozhye itself, remains under Ukrainian control.

The Motor Sich plant was recently taken over by Kiev under wartime authority. The move prompted an international scandal, with Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment, a Chinese company engaged in a legal battle over plant's majority stake, accusing Ukraine of "shameless" actions and "plunder" of assets belonging to foreign investors.