Former head of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s operations division Oleh Dudary said all six power units at the station are now in cold shutdown, which he described as the safest condition for staff, local residents and the environment. He noted that before the full-scale war, the ZNPP, Europe’s largest nuclear plant with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, met high international standards.
Dudary explained that in cold shutdown there is no chain reaction, the temperature is reduced to below 70 degrees, and the pressure is close to atmospheric. In his view, the main danger lies in possible attempts by Russian forces to reconnect the plant more actively to their own grid and alter the reactors’ current state.
He recalled that on the night of March 3-4, 2022, ZNPP personnel, while under shelling from heavy weapons, moved part of the power units into a safer condition. Normally, such an operation takes about a day, but the staff acted under extreme pressure, staying at their posts for more than two days without contact with the city.
According to Dudary, several hours of shelling at the plant could have led to unpredictable consequences and a nuclear-radiation accident.
He said that before the seizure of the plant, two units were already under maintenance, and two more were put into hot shutdown that night. Two units, however, remained in operation at the request of Ukraine’s power grid dispatchers. Dudary said their complete shutdown could have caused the country’s power system to collapse, affecting hospitals, industry, transport, heating and electricity supplies.
After the occupation of the plant, Dudary stayed on for several more months to help maintain safe operations. Later, fearing detention because of his pro-Ukrainian position, he and his wife left through occupied Crimea for Georgia and then Germany, where he received refugee status. While traveling in 2022, he learned about the first blackout at the ZNPP, which occurred on August 25, 2022.