Ukraine: 213 attacks on power infrastructure by Russia spark disaster fears

Context:

As many as 213 incidents of military actions on energy infrastructure such as thermal power plants, nuclear power plants and electricity substations have been reported in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022.
This could lead to environmental and humanitarian disasters with potential transboundary effects.

Details:

Ukraine has 16 thermal power plants, 49 combined heat and power plants, three hyperaccumulating power plants and eight hydropower plants.
The country also has four operational nuclear power plants with 15 reactors.
As many as 63 incidents of damage to the infrastructure were verifiable.

Database collection and verification:

Verification of incidents is performed together with PAX’s partner, the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), as well as with the help of satellite imagery from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency as well as commercial very-high-resolution imagery provided by Planet and MAXAR Technologies, an American space technology company.

Most affected regions:

The largest number of incidents occurred in the Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Mykolaiv regions.

War led disasters awaiting in Ukraine:

1. Threat of Nuclear disaster:

Currently, only one external 750 kV power line is operating instead of the four that were in operation before the invasion.
Emergency diesel generators are used during these periods to provide cooling systems for the plant’s six reactors in order to prevent the start of a meltdown.
When the cooling system stops functioning, the fuel rods of the reactors begin to melt.
This process led to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
The power supply system was destroyed by a tsunami and after three hours the rods began to melt.

2. Water and Air Pollution:

The disruption of power supply to the Donbas coal basin, which has 220 coal mines, could stop the pumping out of water used during mining. This can lead to the accumulation of mine water in rivers and groundwater, causing massive water pollution.
Inadequate steam production due to power shortage could stop the coke oven gas purification process part of coke production, leading to unprecedented air pollution.