World leaders called for the Zaporizhzhia region to be demilitarized after videos emerged of Russian army vehicles inside the plant and previously warned Russia not to cut it off from the Ukrainian grid and connect it to the Russian electricity grid. However, Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company, told the Guardian in an interview that Russian engineers had already drawn up a plan for a switch based on contingency planning if the remaining power connections were struck. “They presented [the plan] to [workers at] the plant, and the plant [workers] presented it to us. A condition for this plan was major damage to all lines connecting the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to the Ukrainian system,” Kotin said in an interview on Ukraine’s independence day on Wednesday, with the country as mostly blocked due to the threat of Russian attacks. It is feared that the Russian military is now targeting these connections to make the emergency scenario a reality. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of bombing the site. “Once they started doing that, they started all the bombing, just to get those lines out,” Kotin said. Graphic Other threats to nuclear safety at the plant include vehicles packed so tightly in turbine rooms that firefighters would struggle to access them if a fire broke out, and a campaign of terror against workers who chose to stay in the frontline plant. One was beaten to death and another was so badly injured that it took three months to recover. More than 200 have been arrested, Kotin said. The plant’s power connections are already in critical condition, with three of the four main lines connecting it to Ukraine’s grid cut during the war and two of the three back-up lines connecting it to a conventional power plant also out of order, he said. Russia’s plan to completely disconnect it would increase the risk of a catastrophic failure by leaving it dependent on a single source of electricity to cool the reactors. “You can’t just go from one system to another right away, you have to … shut everything down on one side and then start changing on the other side,” he said. During a shift between grid systems, the plant will rely only on a backup diesel generator, with no other options in case it fails. After only 90 minutes without power the reactors would reach a dangerous temperature. “During this disconnection, the plant will not be connected to any power supply and that is the reason for the danger,” he said. “If you fail to provide cooling… for an hour and a half, then you will already have melted.” Russia seized control of the Zaporizhzhia factory in March, but it is still operated by Ukrainian workers. There has been growing alarm over Russia’s management of the site in recent weeks and pressure on Moscow to allow UN inspectors to visit. Russia seized control of the Zaporizhzhia factory in March, but it is still operated by Ukrainian workers. Photo: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock Kotin said inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog could be at the plant within a week or two to check safety, following progress in negotiations with Russia over a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Kotin is also concerned about the risk of fire from vehicles piled up in the turbine halls, which are adjacent to the two reactors that are still operating. There are 14 trucks in one hall and at least six in another, sources at the plant told him. “If there is a fire in the turbine room, you don’t even have the ability to put it out or mitigate the effects of that fire, because your fire brigade cannot get in because any entry is blocked by the trucks, which are just I used to collect there,” he said. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Any fire could then spread towards the reactor buildings, where a fire would have devastating effects far beyond the immediate area. “This situation is very dangerous not only for the factory, for Ukraine, but also for the whole world because you can never tell what the weather would be like and what the direction of the wind would be [would be].” Several other military vehicles are lined up under overpasses, built to house pipes and walkways between reactor and turbine assemblies, Kotin said, perhaps to provide protection from drones. He praised the roughly 9,000 workers still on duty at the plant, from a prewar workforce of about 11,000. Many evacuated their families but remained in their positions because of the need for a specialized team to handle it. The modernization of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants after the Chernobyl disaster means that, although the plant was built to Soviet specifications, Russian engineers lack the skills to operate it. “Actually, to us they’re heroes, just doing their job in such incredible conditions,” said Kotin, who knows the plant and its workers well, having spent most of his career there. He arrived as a fresh graduate and became general manager. The missiles have also landed within twenty meters of 174 spent fuel canisters located 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 blasts of maybe two missiles in a container and then it will break,” he said. “We actually had a missile come in just 10, 20 meters right from the site [where the containers are stored].” However, Kotin said he hoped nuclear inspectors could visit the Zaporizhzhia plant within “one, maybe two weeks”. “There is progress in the negotiations… there are only ways for the mission to finally agree between the parties and then they will leave. And I’ve actually seen some plans that are going to be put in place at the end of the month.” He said he was also confident that the Ukrainian workers who had sacrificed so much for the plant would be able to keep it safe. “In any case, we will not allow the Russians to lead the world to nuclear destruction, and we will do everything we can to bring the plant back under our full control and operate it safely and reliably as it has always been.”
