atomic energy agency said there was no immediate risk to safety.Įxperts warned about the possibility of an environmental disaster for wildlife and ecosystems - in Ukraine and beyond. At the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, the Ukrainian operator and the U.N. The Ukrainian company that manages the dam and power plant estimates that it will take about four days for the reservoir to reach equilibrium and stop discharging massive amounts of water. Since mid-February, the water level has steadily increased, according to data from Theia, a French provider of geospatial analysis. Ukrainian officials and independent experts say Russian forces have failed to maintain the dam - built in the 1950s - either deliberately or through neglect.Įarlier this year, water levels in the reservoir were so low that many across Ukraine and beyond feared a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Signs of damage to the gates were evident in late May.Įven before the devastation wrought by Tuesday's breach, hydropower generation was at a fraction of peak levels. Ukraine said the troops occupying it detonated explosives last fall that damaged three sluice gates, which help regulate water levels. Russia has controlled the dam since the early days of the war, and Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling it. The river waters supply cooling systems at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where fighting has repeatedly raised fears of catastrophic accident. The dam - one of the world's biggest in terms of reservoir capacity - retained a volume of water nearly equivalent to that of the Great Salt Lake in the United States.
Global wheat and corn prices rose Tuesday on concerns that production might be disrupted. Ukraine's vast agricultural heartland, which is partially fed by the Dnieper river, is crucial to worldwide supplies of grain, sunflower oil and other foodstuffs. Together with the power station, the dam helps provide electricity, irrigation and drinking water to a wide swath of southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. The 30-meter-high (98-foot-high) dam and associated hydroelectric power station are located about 70 kilometers (44 miles) east of the city of Kherson - a flashpoint of the conflict in a region that Russia has claimed to have annexed but does not fully control. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the facility, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes.
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