(KYIV, Ukraine) – The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is rapidly losing its ability to be restored to working order as a result of Russian military activity and prolonged neglect at the occupied facility, a Ukrainian energy expert has warned.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Centre for Energy Research, told media that conditions at the plant, which is the largest nuclear power station in Europe, remain extremely difficult. He said ammunition is being stored at the site, military personnel are stationed there, and all international nuclear safety rules are being violated.
Kharchenko said neither Ukraine nor its international partners currently have any real means to influence what Russian forces are doing at the station. He described the situation as critical.
The expert also pointed to repeated failures of external power supply to the plant. The station periodically loses its connection to the grid and is forced to rely on diesel generators to cool the reactors. On Saturday, 8 August, the Russian held facility lost external power twice in a single day.
Despite the alarming conditions, Kharchenko said the immediate risk of a nuclear incident remains limited because the reactors have been shut down and are in a cold state. He said a serious nuclear event was unlikely under those conditions.
However, the prolonged absence of proper maintenance and required technical procedures is creating a different and severe problem. The station may soon pass a point beyond which full restoration is no longer possible.
“Everything points to the fact that the Zaporizhzhia NPP is rapidly losing the ability to be restored,” Kharchenko said.
The situation is unique and poorly understood, he added, because no one has full information on the state of the reactor equipment. “Right now no one knows what is happening directly inside the reactors, which are not being serviced, which are not receiving the necessary services, where fuel is not being reloaded, and so on,” Kharchenko said.
The energy expert said the combination of these factors means the future of the Zaporizhzhia station remains uncertain. Its fate, he concluded, is impossible to predict at present.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been under Russian military control since March 2022. It supplied roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity before the war, with an installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts. A permanent shutdown would represent a loss of power generation assets valued at several billion dollars.
Earlier in August, six Russian National Guard commanders were sentenced in absentia in Ukraine for shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant in 2022.