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The
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station (Запорізька атомна електростанція: Zaporiz'ka atomna elektrostantsiya) in southeastern
Ukraine is the
largest nuclear power plant in Europe and
among the 10 largest in the world. It was built by the
Soviet Union near the city of
Enerhodar, on the southern shore of the
Kakhovka Reservoir on the
Dnieper river. It is operated by
Energoatom, who also operate Ukraine's other three nuclear power stations.
The plant has six
VVER-1000 pressurized light water nuclear reactors (PWR), each fuelled with
235U (
LEU) and generating 950
MWe, for a total power output of 5,700 MWe. The first five were successively brought online between 1985 and 1989, and the sixth was added in 1995. The plant generates nearly half of the country's electricity derived from nuclear power, and more than a fifth of total
electricity generated in Ukraine. The
Zaporizhzhia thermal power station is nearby.
On
4 March 2022, the nuclear and thermal power stations were both captured by
Russian forces during the
Battle of Enerhodar of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 12 March 2022 the plant is reportedly controlled by the Russian company
Rosatom. The plant continued to be operated by Ukrainian staff, under Russian control, until
11 September 2022, when the sixth reactor was disconnected.
As of
November 2022, Ukrainian cities had drawn up plans for evacuation centers, secured supplies of
potassium iodide pills and 10% of emergency medicine teams in the
Ukraine had been
reconfigured to respond to chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear risks.
Assessment > of nuclear risks resulting from worst-case military strike.
