Ukraine: cooling pond at Zaporizhzhia plant at risk after dam collapse – report

An aerial view of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Energoatom officials insisted that even in a worst-case scenario, there would be enough water to keep reactor cores and spent fuel cool. Photograph: 2023 Planet Labs PBC/AFP/Getty

The cooling pond at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in danger of collapse as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the draining of its reservoir, according to a French nuclear safety organisation.

Without the reservoir on the other side to counteract it, the internal pressure of the water in the cooling pool could breach the dyke around it, a report by the Paris-based Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said.