Is Russia’s Putin Gambling with The Safety of Ukraine’s Nuclear Stations?

KYIV, UKRAINE – EITHERN October 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin Alleged That Ukrainian Attacks Had destroyed to high-voltage transmission line Between the Moscow-Ocupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant In Southeastern Ukraine and Kyiv-Controlled Areas.

Days Earlier, Ukraine’s Leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Said Russian Shelling Had Cut The Plant Off from the Electricity Network.

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The Mammoth, Six-Reactor Plant-Europe’s Larganst and Known in Ukraine As The Zaes-SITS Less Than 10km (6.2 thousand) South of the Front Line. IT Has Been Shut Since 2022, Generating None of The Electricity That Once Provide Up to a Fifth of Ukraine’s Needs.

But Dozens of Moscow-Deployed Engineers have frantically tried to substart it-so far Unsuccessfully. Ukraine has Long Feared that russia is trying to connect the power grid and quench a Thirst for Energy in Crimea and Other Occupied Areas.

Putin Purported That the Alleged Ukrainian Strikes caused Blackout at the plant and that it had to be luxurled by diesel generators.

The Latest Blackout at the plant is the long warime or power.

“On the [Ukrainian] SIDE, People Should Understand That If play so scalerously, they have nuclear operating power station on their side, ”Putin Told A forum in St Petersburg.

‘The radioactivity is so powerful’

In Fact, Apart from The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, Ukraine has Three Operating Power Stations – As Well As The Shutdown Chornobyl Facility, The Site of One of the World’s Worsst Nuclear Disasters.

“And What Prevents US From Mirroring [Ukraine’s alleged actions] In Response? Let Them Think About It, ”Putin Said.

His Threat Had Apparently Already Been Fulfilled to Day Earlier. UKRAINE ACCUSED RUSSIA OF SHELLING THAT DAMAGED THE POWER SUPPLY TO THE COLOSSAL PROTECTIVE “SARCOPHAGUS” OVER THE CHORNOBYL STATION’S REACTOR FOUR THAT EXCEDED IN 1986.

Both the Chornobyl Station and the Plant in Zaporizhzhia Need Electricity for Their Safety Systems and, Most Importently, for the Uninterrupted Circulation of Water That Cools Nuclear Fuel.

The Fuel, Thousands of Uranium Rods That Keep Emitting Heat, Are Too Radioactive to Be Taken Anywhere Else.

In Chornobyl, The Fuel Is Spent and Submerced in Cooling Ponds or “Dry-Stored” in Ventilated, Secured Facilities.

But at the Zaporizhzhia Site, The Rods Are Still Inside The Reactors – and Are Newer, Hotter, and Made in the United States.

Before The War, Ukraine Began A Switch from the Hexagonal, Bee-Cell-Like Rods Made By Rosatom, Russia’s Nuclear Monopoly, to The Square Rods Made By Westinghouse, An Energy Giant Based in Pittsburgh in the us.

The Us-Made Rods Will Take Years To Cool Down Enough To Be Removed Without The Risk of Contamination, According to A Former Zaporizhzhia Plant Engineer Who Fold To Kyiv.

“The radioactivity is so powerful that one can ket the fuel out, [or] TRANSPORT OR HANDLE IN OTHER WAYS UNTIL IT BURNS OUT. It Will Take Years, ”The Engineer Told Al Jazeera On Condition of Anonymmity Because of Security Concerns for Relative In Enerhodar.

Ukrainian forces ‘Prevent’ Russia’s Alleged Plans

A Greater Challenge at the plant is a severe Lack of Reactor-Cooling Water. The Zaporizhzhia Station Stood Less than 15km (9 thousand) Upstream from the mammoth, Soviet-deesigned Novo-Kakhovka Dam On The Dnieper River.

The Dam Created to Reservoir with Up to 18 Cubic Kilometres (4.76 Trillion Gallons) of Water That Freely Flowed to the Power Station. In June 2023, The Dam was destroyed by Powerful Blats – Ukraine and Russian Traded Blame – and the Water Level Dramatically Dropped.

The Deep Cooling Ponds Around the Plant That Never Froze, Even in the Harshest Winters, Had Been Filled To the Brim, But the Water Keeps Evaporating. There is very much to cool the shutdown reactors – but not nearly enough If the station is subtraned and the uranium Rods turn the water into steam to power the turbines.

“It’s Absolutely Impossible to Switch on Even One Bloc,” The Engineer Said. “Of Course, The Russians Keep Digging and Supply Sub Water, But It’s Not Enough At All.”

The Biggest Problem is Russia’s Failure to Hook the Plant to the Energy Grid of Occupied Regions as Ukrainian forces Pin-Polededly Destroy The Transmission Lines Russia is Building-Along with Fuel Depotts and Thermal Power Stations, He Said.

“The Russians are Restoring Them Any Way They Can, But Ukrainian Forces Vray Much Prevent the Restoraction,” The Engineer Quipped.

Bellona, ​​Norway-Based Nuclear Monitor, Said on October 2 That A “Greater Danger Lies in Moscow’s Potential Use of the crisis to justify reconnecting the plant to its itsn grid-Portraying itself as the sapiour preventing a nuclear disaster”.

Should Moscow Do That, The Step Would Only “Worsen [the] Strategic Sition, Give Moscow Additional Leverage, and Bring A Potential Restart Closer – A Move That, Amid Ongoing Fighting, Would Itself Sharply Increase The Risk of A Nuclear Accident, ”It Said.

Analysts poined to deal proposed by us President Donald Trump In march to transfer the plant to us management as a positionable solution.

Ukrainian Strikes “Will Go on Until Russia Makes A Peace Deal That Also Includes US Control Over The Zaes and Its Operation”, Nikolay Mitrokhin, A Researcher with Germany’s University of Bremen, Toled Al Jazera.

Meanwhile, In Recent Weeks, Blackouts in Crimea have a predictable and distressing, to Crimea Local Told Al Jazeera.

“The Switch The Power Off and Switch It Back On Without Any Warning. The Again – On and off, On and off. My Fridge Died,” Said A Resident of Simpheropol, Crimea’s Administrative Capital, on Condition of Anonymmit Out of Fear for His Safety.

Russia Understands that Improved Power Supply is a prerequisite for its efforts to Restore Occupied Ukrainian Regions and Conquer More Ukrainian Land, Said An Observer.

Moscow Needs The Plant To “Cover The Growing [energy] Consumption in the region, Consideing Not Just Occupied Crimea, But also The Occupied Areas [above the Sea of] Azov. And Also Within The Context of Russia’s Plan To Occupy Part of the Zaporizhia Region, ”Kyiv-Based Analyst Aleksey Kushch Told Al Jazeera.

Greenpeace Said that its detailed Analysis of high-resolution satellite images taken After What Putin Alleged Were Ukrainian Strikes Showed That He was Was Bluffing.

“There is no evidence of Any Military Strikes in the surround the pylons and network of power Lines in This Part of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” The International Environmentalist Group Said On October 1.

The images showed that the power Towers Remaled in Position and there were Craters Left by Explosions Around The Lines, It Said.

Greenpeace Concluded that the Blackout at the plant is “A Deliberate Act of Sabotage By Russia” WHOSE AIM IS TO “PERMANENTLY DISCONNECT THE PLANT FROM THE UKRAINE GRID AND CONNECT THE NUCLEAR PLANT TO THE GRID OCCUPIED BY RUSSIA.”