2023-06-06 14:02:24
The New Kakhovka hydroelectric power stationdestroyed last night by an explosion for which Moscow and Kiev blame each other, is of key importance for the area, in particular for the correct operation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the supply of the Crimean peninsula, controlled by Russia since 2014 .
Construction of the dam began in 1950 and it was commissioned six years later, during Soviet times. Kajovka is the last of the hydroelectric power station cascade of the Dnieper river.
It’s about the fifth hydroelectric from Ukraine with a power of 334.8 megawatts. The reservoir contained before the disaster on Tuesday 18 million cubic meters of water. The dam wall is 16 meters high and 3,850 meters long.
The infrastructure, which will have to be built from scratch, according to the Russian authorities, is located in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, 5 kilometers from the city of New Kajovka, which Russia occupied in February 2022, just after the start of the intervention. military in the neighboring country.
The Kakhovka dam and Crimea
The dam of the hydroelectric power station has a great importance not only for its energy and irrigation capacities for agriculturebut also because it connects the right and left banks of the Dnieper River, which has become the front line between the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
On the other hand, near New Kakhovka, which had about 45,000 inhabitants before the start of the war, originates from the North Crimean Channelwhich brings water to the annexed peninsula from the Dnieper River, on which the destroyed hydroelectric plant is located.
the channel, of more than 400 kilometers longoriginates from the Kakhovka Reservoir and was built between 1961 and 1971 to provide water to the dry areas of the Kherson and Crimean region.
Ukraine blocked it in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, and in the first days of the offensive in the neighboring country, Moscow occupied the hydroelectric plant and access to the key infrastructure for supplying the peninsula.
Water needed to cool Zaporizhia
The water from the Dnieper River and the Kakhovka reservoir is also vital for the operation of the nearby Zaporizhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe and under constant danger from war attacks.
The water from the reservoir is necessary for the plant in the neighboring Zaporizhia region to receive electricity for turbine condensers and security systems from the power station, occupied by Russian troops.
The plant’s cooling pond is filled with a water level of 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the plant’s needs, according to the Ukrainian nuclear agency, Energoatom.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who are at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant assured this Tuesday that “There is no immediate risk to nuclear safety at the plant”.
Also Russia, which controls the atomic plant, stated that the risks for the Zaporizhia plant “are now minimal.”
According to Renat Karchaa, adviser to the Russian operator of the nuclear plants, Rosenergoatom, there was recently a “alarming period”when the water level in the reservoir “was rising”, but “measures were taken to minimize the risks”.
Early warnings about a similar attack
Last October, both kyiv and Moscow warned of plans by the other side to bomb or blow up the dam. Ukraine pointed out at that time that if the dam bursts, more than 80 localities would be in the flood zone.
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, then also requested the sending of an international observation mission to Kakhovka.
Las pro-Russian authorities in the Ukrainian region of Jershon began at that time to release water of the dam to reduce the water level and thus minimize the potential disaster.
These actions, according to local officials, made it possible to avoid the worst scenario also today, when the hydroelectric plant received irreparable damage.
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