Water flows from the collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in Ukraine
Associated Press/Alamy
The Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in southern Ukraine was severely damaged by an explosion, rapidly releasing large amounts of trapped water downstream. What impact will it have on humans, wildlife and nuclear reactors in its path?
what happened to the dam?
It’s unclear who was responsible for the dam’s collapse, or what caused it, but reports say a massive explosion occurred. A major breach of the dam is now releasing large amounts of water into the Dnieper. The Ukrainian military condemns Russia’s deliberate actions, and Russia condemns Ukraine.
Ukraine suggested last October that Russia may have planned to blow up the dam to delay a Ukrainian counterattack. In fact, there was an explosion there in November that lost the road and rail connection above the dam, but left the dam itself intact.
Since then, the water behind Russian-occupied dams has risen in places too high to flood nearby villages, and too low to prevent access to clean water, irrigation of farmlands, and the nearby Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. cooling of the place (ZNPP). ).
Officials have warned that 18 million cubic meters of water could be rapidly released if the dam bursts. Initial analysis suggests that water levels in the reservoir behind the dam are now dropping by five centimeters an hour.
Are Ukraine’s Nuclear Power Plants in Danger?
Water from Kakovka Dam is used to cool the reactor and spent fuel at the ZNPP, Europe’s largest nuclear installation. The plant has been occupied by Russia for months, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said the interruption of normal operations and intense fighting on the ground could lead to a nuclear accident. The IAEA said in a statement that it was monitoring the situation but that at this time there was “no imminent risk to the safety of the nuclear plant.”
Olena Palenyuk, a scientist at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, said the ZNPP has been shut down since late last year, so the reactor’s cooling demand is lower than when it was running. But she warns that there are two possible problems she has. One, she said, would be without access to fresh, cold water, which could make critical cooling more difficult. is that it can affect
Another concern is that the staff, who have tried to keep the factory safe during the difficult conditions of Russian occupation, now have more work to do. “This is an emergency and those responding to the emergency should be in good health, well rested and in a good state of mind,” Palenuk said. “But the people who have to deal with this situation now, as you know, have already been nervous for a year and a half and now have new stress. It’s pretty bad.”
The water level in the reservoir behind the collapsed dam was 16.4 meters at 8:00 am on June 6. According to the IAEA, if the water depth is less than 12.7 meters, it will not be able to pump water to the ZNPP.
Are there other risks to human life?
Low-lying areas of the downstream city of Kherson, population 280,000, have been evacuated. Up to 80 towns and villages downstream of the dam could also be affected. Mikhail Podlyak, Senior Advisor to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, said: tweeted: “Many settlements will disappear from the map as a result of acts of terrorism. People will die.”
Previous modeling of dam failures in situ indicates that, in the worst-case scenario, a five-meter wave could hit the Antonivsky Bridge downstream, causing widespread flooding across the region. .
What about access to water?
Some people in Ukraine are currently facing an unstable supply of fresh water. Russian-occupied Crimea relies heavily on water from the North Crimean Canal, fed by the dam-damaged Dnieper. The risks of future shortages will become more apparent in the coming days.
What will be the impact on the environment?
Ukrainian officials said the floods also pose an “ecological disaster”.Podoljak is warned “It will cause great harm to the environment.”
Megan Clar of the University of Leeds, UK, said the act could be considered ecoterrorism if intentional, and it could take time to determine the extent of the damage. Habitats like lakes upstream and downstream are all at risk, she says.
“Now is not the best time for that to happen. It’s the kind of ecosystem that’s very accustomed to being affected by high flows, maybe not as much as a dam burst, but it’s usually They are accustomed to winter conditions, but now they have lots of juveniles and they are trying to reproduce,” she says.
Due to the fighting in the area, detailed ecological studies may take time, but satellite imagery will provide some information soon, Klar said.
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