Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

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About Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant-

• Zaporizhzhia is a city in south-eastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper river. 

• The plant is located in the steppe zone of Ukraine, on the bank of the Kakhovka water reservoir. 
• It is also 550 km south-east of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. 
• The strategically important city is known for its island of Khortytsia and Dnieper Hydroelectric Station. 

• This plant is one of the four nuclear power plants in Ukraine and also the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. 

• It produces one-fifth of the country’s electricity and contributes half of the country’s nuclear power generation. 
• It has six reactors, each with a power capacity of 950MW, making the total capacity of the plant 5,700MW, enough to power four million households. 

• The construction for the first reactor of the plant began in 1979, when Ukraine was a part of the USSR. 
• The first reactor of the plant was connected to the power grid in 1984 and the last one in 1995. 
• All the reactors in the plant are VVVER-1000 or Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR), originally designed in the Soviet Union.
• The reactors in the have a two-circuit design. This means that the nuclear-contaminated steam does not generate the final energy, but is used to power another circuit with non-contaminated steam, which in turn makes the turbines run. 
• Experts have pointed out that these reactors also have a back-up cooling system for emergencies.

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