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Mahesh

04/03/22 09:25 AM IST

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

In News
  • A fire had broken out in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant located in Zaporizhzhia following fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Details 
  • Zaporizhzhia in Enerhodar — a city in the north-western part of Ukraine, close to Kharkiv and about 550 km south-east of Kyiv — is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world.
  • It accounts for a fifth of the electricity generated in Ukraine.
  • The plant has six VVER-1000 pressurised light water nuclear reactors (PWR), each generating 950 MWe (megawatt electric), for a total power output of 5,700 MWe.
  • It’s nearly three times the size of the Kudankulam nuclear power station — which has a capacity of 2,000MWe, with two operational VVER-1000 units which are the same as the ones at Zaporizhzhia, but of an updated type.
Problem if fire Spreads
  • The power plant itself is unlikely to generate the kind of radioactivity that Chernobyl did, but given that it’s a pre-Fukushima plant, the safety features and redundancies are not as robust as in the new VVER-based plants, such as the one at Kudankulam.
  • The biggest problem is if the fuel pond were to be hit or impacted. It is generally in the vicinity of the nuclear plant’s compound, where the spent — or used — fuel is stored. The safety features for the fuel pond are typically not as robust as of the plant itself.
Source- Indian Express

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