How the breach of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam could affect a nuclear plant
Water that would cool the Zaporizhia power plant is rushing out of the reservoir
THE BLOWING up of Nova Kakhovka dam in occupied southern Ukraine in the early morning of June 6th has had devastating consequences downstream. On June 7th the Ukrainian government said that 42,000 people were at risk from flooding: thousands have been evacuated. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, has said that hundreds of thousands are “without normal access” to drinking water. But the destruction could pose risks upstream, too, at the Zaporizhia nuclear-power plant. Europe’s largest nuclear plant draws water to cool its reactors from the Kakhovka reservoir behind the breached dam. The reservoir’s water levels are falling rapidly. How serious is the threat to the plant?
From the June 10th 2023 edition
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