Why Ukraine’s Big Nuclear Plant Raises Worries Again

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s biggest such facility, has become one of the most sensitive flashpoints of the war. Soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, they captured the plant in the first case of a nuclear station being taken as a spoil of war. Their assault sparked a fire at the complex, though the damage was limited. Since July, shelling aimed at the plant, which Russia and Ukraine blame on each other, has increased to become a near-daily occurrence. Both sides have an interest in stressing the dangers. Still, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog says the plant’s physical integrity has been violated and the potential for a nuclear catastrophe is real.

Construction on the plant began in 1981 -- five years before the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant about 500 kilometers (310 miles) away -- when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. A sixth reactor was added in 1995, after Ukraine gained its independence from Moscow. Located on the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River, the plant has a total capacity of 5.7 gigawatts, enough to power more than 4 million homes. Owned by Energoatom, Ukraine’s national nuclear operator, it’s designed to provide a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity needs. It originally relied on Russia for the uranium that fuels its reactors, but today four of the six units use fuel from the US-based Westinghouse Electric Co. After Russian forces seized the site in early March, Moscow sent engineers from Rosatom, the state-owned nuclear power company, to supervise operations using the existing Ukrainian technicians.