More than 3,000 spent nuclear fuel rods are kept inside metal casks within towering concrete containers in an open-air yard close to a perimeter fence at Zaporizhia, the Guardian discovered on a recent visit to the plant, which is 124 miles (200km) from the current front line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a war around the corner, it is shocking that the spent fuel rod containers are standing under the open sky, with just a metal gate and some security guards waltzing up and down for protection,\u201d said Patricia Lorenz, a Friends of the Earth nuclear spokeswoman who visited the plant on a fact-finding mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never seen anything like it,\u201d she added. \u201cIt is unheard of when, in Germany, interim storage operators have been ordered by the court to terror-proof their casks with roofs and reinforced walls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Industry experts said that ideally the waste store would have a secondary containment system such as a roof.
\nUkraine\u2019s conflict in Donbass is 124 miles away from the plant, but Gustav Gressel, a fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations thinks the front line is too far away \u2013 for now \u2013 to be at risk from fighting.<\/p>\n
However, locals still fear for the potential consequences if the conflict was to spread in the plant\u2019s direction. Just three decades ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant north of Kiev released a radioactive cloud that poisoned vast tracts of land.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are scared because the conflict zone is quite near,\u201d Vasiliy Ivanovic, a former policeman turned environmental volunteer told the Guardian. \u201cIf Putin wants to connect Russia to the Crimea, the route goes through Mariupol. The Russian troops are already near there, and they have missiles that could hit the power plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entrance of Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station Facebook Twitter Pinterest
\nEntrance to Zaporizhia nuclear power station Photograph: Igor Chekachkov for The Guardian
\nUkrainian forces repelled attacks by Russian-backed separatist rebels in Mariupol a year ago, but two Ukrainian troops were injured during clashes in the strategic port city earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Any separatist offensive in the region could threaten the Zaporizhia plant because of Russian military tactics. Initial barrages against frontline positions are often followed with bombardments of possible lines of defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians use a large amount of multiple rocket-propelled systems that are not entirely precise, and they don\u2019t really care where they land,\u201d said Gressel.<\/p>\n
The Zaporizhia plant might itself be used as a defensive position by fleeing Ukrainian soldiers he said, adding: \u201cOf course, there could be a natural disaster if the fighting comes there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the current state of warfare, I cannot say what could be done to completely protect installations from attack<\/p>\n
Sergiy Bozhko<\/p>\n
Plant security at Zaporizhia is now at a \u2018high readiness\u2019 level, while air force protection and training exercises have been stepped up. Officials say that if fighting reaches the plant, there are plans for the closure of access roads and deployment of soldiers.<\/p>\n
But they say that no containment design could take the stresses of military conflict into account. \u201cGiven the current state of warfare, I cannot say what could be done to completely protect installations from attack, except to build them on Mars,\u201d Sergiy Bozhko , the chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine\u2019s plan is to withstand and win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
fuel rods in open air taken by one of the people on the Zaporizhia visit
\nSpent fuel rod containers in the open air. Photograph: The Guardian
\nZaporizhia\u2019s storage unit was built to a US design specification that involved rigorous testing for the possibility of a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
The US Sandia Lab tests considered scenarios up to airliner impact, although the results remain classified, Neil Hyatt , a professor of radioactive waste management at Sheffield University, told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
However, a dry storage container with a resilient roof and in-house ventilation would offer greater protection from missile bombardment, he said \u2013 so long as the structure was designed that way from the start. \u201cYou would need to prepare adequate foundations to accommodate the substantive structure required, so I doubt this could be retrofitted at Zaporoizhia with the casks in place,\u201d Hyatt said. \u201cYou would need to build a [new] purpose structure and then move the casks to the structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Antony Froggatt, a senior research fellow and European nuclear specialist at Chatham House agreed that a secondary containment system would offer greater protection from internal or external explosions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious that if you do not have an array of dry cast [interim] stores with secondary containment around it, then that will have a greater risk of release of radioactive material,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But installing these would \u201cbe a very expensive decision,\u201d according to Nikolai Steinberg , a prominent Ukrainian nuclear expert and former energy vice-minister. \u201cI think it is not necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sources at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) told the Guardian that any funding request from Ukraine for such a structure would be seriously considered. The bank has already made \u20ac300m available for nuclear lifetime extension programmes in Ukraine, before the regulators have even signed off on them.<\/p>\n
We know about the weak links in the plant [security]… But I doubt that that these should be disclosed
\nA pall was cast over security arrangements at Zaporizhia last May when the plant was the scene of an armed confrontation between security guards and paramilitaries from the ultra-nationalist \u2018right sector\u2019, which is allied with neo-Nazi groups. The gunmen reportedly wanted to \u2018protect\u2019 the plant from pro-Russian forces, but were stopped by guards at a checkpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have several risky nuclear materials [at Zaporizhia],\u201d said Sergei Shegin, the plant\u2019s chief reactor specialist. \u201cAs well as the reactors, we have spent nuclear fuel and all possible measures should be taken. As technical specialists, we know about the weak links in the plant [security], and there are some. But I doubt that these should be disclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station and villages surrounfing it Facebook Twitter Pinterest
\nZaporizhia plant and surrounding villages. Photograph: Igor Chekachkov for The Guardian
\nAround 770,000 people live in the city of Zaporizhia and safety issues have risen to the fore among local people. Most support the reactor for the jobs it provides, but environmental concerns have grown since a plant shutdown in December amid rumours of a radiation leak, which were denied by the company.<\/p>\n
The share of Ukrainian electricity provided by nuclear rose by around 10% in the last year, as conflict in the Donbass region threw Russian gas supplies into doubt.<\/p>\n
Coal supplies too had to be tortuously re-routed from Ukraine\u2019s east through Russia, to keep up a pretence they are being sourced internationally and avoid the impression of buying energy direct from the separatist rebels who are fighting Ukrainian soldiers.<\/p>\n
As a result, uranium fuel supplies are fast becoming a new east-west battlefield in the post-Soviet great energy game.<\/p>\n
Nuclear fuel is the only sphere in which cooperation remains friendly because Ukraine is one of Russia\u2019s biggest clients
\n\u201cNuclear energy is the only possible option for us to replace the generated electricity that we lost [from coal and gas],\u201d a government source told the Guardian. \u201cAfter the start of open war with Russia, it was understood that all our other strategies in the energy sphere would become impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some 60% of Ukraine\u2019s electricity is now produced by 15 ageing reactors \u2013 concentrated in four giant plants. Nine of these will reach the end of their design lifetimes in the next five years, and three have already.<\/p>\n
Grafiti in Energodar, the closest town to Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station Facebook Twitter Pinterest
\nGraffiti in Energodar town close to the Zaporizhia plant. Photograph: Igor Chekachkov\/Igor Chekachkov for The Guardian
\nMost of Ukraine\u2019s nuclear fleet depends on Russia\u2019s Rosatom to supply its enriched uranium fuel \u2013 and to whisk away the resulting radioactive waste for storage.<\/p>\n
\u201cNuclear fuel is the only sphere in which cooperation remains friendly, constructive and successful because Ukraine is one of Russia\u2019s biggest clients,\u201d said Roman Rukomeda , a political analyst. \u201cIt is an issue of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as fear and loathing in the war-torn region grow, government sources say that in the long term, Ukraine aims to forge a three-way split in nuclear fuel supply contracts between US-company Westinghouse, European companies, such as Areva, and Rosatom. This creates its own safety issues.<\/p>\n
One key Ukrainian reactor will be mothballed next month, until concerns about nuclear fuel provided by Westinghouse have been resolved.
\nChernobyl arch faces \u20ac265m funding gap ahead of disaster’s 29th anniversary
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\nThe 1,000MW Chernobyl-era reactor in the South Ukraine plant was last week denied a lifetime extension until the state energy company, Energoatom, provides data to the SNRIU nuclear watchdog about Westinghouse fuel trials, operations and core reactor conditions afterwards.<\/p>\n
The regulator listed several other safety limitations and deficiencies brought on by the plant\u2019s ageing components, including 33 \u2018deviations\u2019 from current nuclear and radiation safety norms.<\/p>\n
With war and an energy tilt to the West narrowing energy security options though, the shutdown is expected to be short-lived.<\/p>\n
Security sources say that Rosatom may remain Kiev\u2019s biggest single partner but it will definitely lose its monopoly in the years ahead, and Westinghouse\u2019s share of uranium fuel supplies will grow.<\/p>\n
Last December, the US firm signed a memo with Ukraine to \u201csignificantly increase fuel deliveries\u201d to Ukrainian plants, though the details are sketchy. A similar deal was signed with the French nuclear company Areva on 24 April.<\/p>\n
But fears of Russian retaliation have dogged past plans to shift supply or disposal contracts to the West, and market diversification will be a slow process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always a threat that it can become a political issue and Russia could stop their contracts,\u201d one source said. \u201cThe Americans are proposing that their company Westinghouse substitute for Rosatom, but warning us that it will take one or two years to produce the fuel, so we will need at least one year\u2019s supply in storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Picture of Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station in the hotel in Energodar Facebook Twitter Pinterest
\nPicture of Zaporizhia power station in a hotel in Energodar. Photograph: Igor Chekachkov for The Guardian
\nThe US has provided technology, training and hundreds of millions of dollars to help Ukraine\u2019s push for fuel diversification, according to a US diplomatic cable from 2009, published by Wikileaks.<\/p>\n
Westinghouse has also lobbied the Ukrainian government at ministerial level to commit to buying their fuel for at least five reactors. Plant managers say that it will be used in Zaporizhia by 2017.<\/p>\n
But local people in the reactor\u2019s shadow say they fear the consequences of a patched up Soviet-era plant cranking up to generate electricity into the 2020s.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory teaches us that history doesn\u2019t teach us anything,\u201d Ivanovic said. \u201cAnother catastrophe could happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n