“Those heaters run on electricity, which need not come from the reactors, if the plant has a grid connection or backup generators in lieu of off-site power supplies,” Arndt said by email. He did not have enough information to say whether restarting reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant was necessary. power plants often use heaters to prevent equipment, particularly refueling water storage tanks, from freezing. Steven Arndt, president of the American Nuclear Society, said U.S. And actually, we don’t have much time to do that,” Kotin said.Īt the time of the forced shutdown, Ukrainian officials warned it was only a stopgap measure and, as such, unreliable. “We, at the moment, are evaluating all the risks. In an interview with The Associated Press, Energoatom President Petro Kotin said the company could restart two of the reactors in a matter of days to protect safety installations as winter approaches and temperatures drop. 11 because Russian military activity had cut reliable external power supplies for cooling and other safety systems, threatening a potentially catastrophic meltdown.īut now the company faces a different problem. Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom shut down the last of the plant’s six reactors on Sept. It has been damaged in fighting, prompting international alarm, and its head was detained by occupying forces through the weekend before his release Monday. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has emerged as one of the most worrying flashpoints of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine is considering restarting Europe’s largest nuclear plant to ensure its safety just weeks after fears of a radiation disaster at the Russian-occupied facility, the president of the company that operates the plant said Tuesday.

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