Zaporizhya poses radiation risk

Zaporizhya nuclear power plant had to use emergency backup diesel generators after Russian shelling cut electricity, interrupting vital cooling water pumped through its reactor cores

Power plant
Nuclear reactor
Decommissioned reactor

Rivne Khmelnytskyi
Chernobyl
South
Ukraine
Zaporizhya
Kyiv
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
Territory controlled by Russia

Zaporizhya nuclear plant
Two of six reactors operating
Cooling pond

VVER-1000/ 320 reactors:
Six Soviet- designed pressurised water reactors

Control rod drive mechanism

Vessel head

Reactor pressure vessel

Cooling water outlet

Cooling water inlet

Core shroud

Reactor core and fuel rods

Primary cooling: Electrical pumps push water through reactor core

Cooling failure: Fuel heats up and can melt through reactor vessel to release highly radioactive fission products into environment 

Sources: IAEA, ResearchGate, Reuters
Picture: Google Earth
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