Ukraine’s atomic energy company, Energoatom has warned of a potential “catastrophic lack of qualified personnel” at the Zaporizhzhia plant in Russia-occupied southern Ukraine as Russia intends to relocate around 3,100 Ukrainian staff from the plant.
Workers who signed employment contracts with various affiliates of Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom following Moscow’s capture of the Zaporizhzhia plant early in the war are the bulk of those set to be taken to Russia along with their families, Energoatom noted in a Telegram post.
The company did not specify whether the employees would be forcibly moved out of the plant. It also was not immediately possible to verify Energoatom’s claims about Moscow’s plan. Removing staff would “exacerbate the already extremely urgent issue” of staff shortages, Energoatom said.
An Energoatom representative disclosed that the evacuation plan, which staff were aware of, covered roughly half of the plant’s 6,000 employees and was prompted by fears of a Ukraine counteroffensive in the area.
Some plant employees are already being relocated deeper into Russia-held territory and accommodated in the resort towns of Berdiansk and Kyrylivka on the Azov Sea coast, the person said on condition of anonymity because of safety fears.
Before the war, the plant employed around 11,000 people. About 500 Russian troops are stationed at the site, while at least 1,500 others are based in the nearby city of Enerhodar, the Ergoatom representative said.
The Russians have laid minefields around the plant and built defensive positions, the person said.
The Moscow-installed Governor of the region ordered civilian evacuations from the area last Saturday, including Enerhodar. The full scope of the evacuation order wasn’t clear.
Fighting near the plant has fueled fears of a potential catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, where a reactor exploded in 1986 and spewed deadly radiation, contaminating a vast area in the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Zaporizhzhia is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world. While its six reactors have been shut down for months, it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.
An Expected Ukrainian Counteroffensive
Kremlin-installed authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region are accelerating their push to relocate local residents, including families of workers at the plant, because of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, Kyiv officials said.
Military analysts say Ukraine may focus the counteroffensive on the Zaporizhzhia region, trying to split Russian forces in two by pushing through to the Azov Sea coast in the south.
Relatives of Zaporizhzhia plant staff who agreed to relocate were taken to Russia’s southern Rostov region and placed in temporary camps, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
It added that plant employees are currently prohibited from leaving Enerhodar. It made no mention of the alleged Russian plan referred to by Energoatom.
Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, which says it runs and coordinates Ukrainian partisan movements on territory occupied by Russian forces, says Russian-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia are shutting down schools, preparing buses and appointing officials to oversee the evacuation process. They allege that the process is largely targeting children.
After taking over at Zaporizhzhia, the Russians left the Ukrainian staff in place to keep the plant running but the exact number of workers currently at the plant isn’t known.
However, the IAEA said soon after Russian troops overran the plant after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, that low staffing levels “seriously compromised” one of the fundamental factors in nuclear safety and security, which is that “operating staff must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.”
The IAEA has deployed a handful of staff at Zaporizhzhia in an effort to ensure its safety.
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