Water level at cooling pond of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘stable’: Ukraine

Ukraine’s national nuclear energy provider on Monday said the water level at the cooling pond of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is stable.

‘As of 20:00 (1700GMT) on June 11, the water level in the Kakhovka Reservoir in the Nikopol area is 9.04 meters (nearly 30 feet), and in the cooling pond of the Zaporizhzhia NPP – 16.67 m (around 55 ft), and this is quite enough to meet the station’s needs,’ Energoatom said on Telegram.

Energoatom further said the situation in the power plant remains ‘stable and under control’ despite the explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.

It also said evaporation has not occurred in the cooling pond since the power units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP became non-operational in September 2022.

Earlier last week, an emergency was declared on both sides of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region after it burst – one side is controlled by Russia and the other by Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the blast, which destroyed part of the dam that supplied water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.​​​​​​​

Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest and one of the world’s 10 biggest nuclear power plants, has been under Russia’s control since March last year, soon after the start of the Ukraine war.​​​​​​​

• Nuclear Power Plant (NPP)