Why the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is a sticking point in Ukraine peace talks

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is one of the main sticking points in the US peace plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. The issue is one of 20 points laid out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a framework peace plan that he discussed with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday.

Here are some of the outstanding issues regarding the facility.

What plans are being discussed ?

Russia took control of the plant, which lies close to the front ​lines, in March 2022 and announced plans to connect it to its power grid.

Almost all countries agree that it belongs to Ukraine, but Russia says it is owned by Russia ‍and a unit of Russia's state-owned Rosatom nuclear corporation runs the plant.

Zelensky stated in December that the US had proposed joint trilateral operation of the nuclear power plant with an American chief manager.

Read moreLive: Zelensky denounces 'lies' as Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting Putin residence in Novgorod

Zelensky said the Ukrainian proposal envisages Ukrainian-American use of the plant, with the US itself determining how ​to use 50% of the energy produced.

Russia has considered joint Russian-US use of the plant, according to the Kommersant newspaper.

After his talks with Zelensky on ​Sunday, Trump said negotiators had made progress on deciding the fate of the plant, which can "start up almost immediately". The US president said "it's a big step" that Russia had not bombed the facility.

What is the current status ?

The plant is located in Enerhodar on the banks of the Dnipro River and the Kakhovka Reservoir, 550 km (342 miles) southeast of the capital Kyiv.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has six Soviet-designed reactors with a total capacity of 5.7 gigawatts, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) database.

It is not currently producing electricity but relies on external power to keep the nuclear material cool and avoid a meltdown.

Ukraine: What is blocking the peace deal negotiations?

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.

Accept Manage my choices

One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.

Try again

The plant's equipment is powered by electricity supplied from Ukraine. Over the past four years these supplies have been interrupted at least 11 times due to breaks in power lines, forcing the plant to switch to emergency diesel generators.

Both Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of striking the nuclear plant and of severing power lines ‍leading to it.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi says fighting a war around a nuclear plant has put nuclear safety and security in constant jeopardy.

The Russian head of the station said on Monday the facility could restart power generation by mid-2027 if the war concluded soon.

Why does Russia want the Zaporizhzhia plant ?

Russia has been preparing to restart the station but says that doing so will depend on the situation in the area. Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev has not ruled out the supply of electricity produced there to parts of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Centre in Kyiv, said Moscow intended to use the plant to cover a significant energy deficit in ‌Russia's south.

In December, Russia's Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision issued a license for the operation of reactor No. 1, a key step towards restarting the reactor.

Ukraine's energy ministry called the move illegal and irresponsible, risking a nuclear accident.

Why does Ukraine need the plant ?

Russia has been pummelling Ukraine's energy infrastructure throughout the war. In ‍recent months, Russia has sharply increased the scale and intensity of its attacks, plunging entire regions into darkness.

Analysts say Ukraine's generation capacity deficit is about 4 gigawatts, or the equivalent of four Zaporizhzhia reactors.

Kharchenko says it would take Ukraine five to seven years to build the generating capacity to compensate for the loss of the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Kharchenko said that if Kyiv regained control of the plant, it would take at least two to three years to understand what condition it was in and another three years to restore the equipment and return it to full operation.

Both Ukrainian state nuclear operator Energoatom and Kharchenko said Ukraine did not know the real condition of the nuclear power plant today.

What about cooling the fuel ?

In the long term, there is the unresolved problem of the lack of water resources to cool the reactors after the vast Kakhovka hydro-electric dam was blown up in 2023, destroying the reservoir that supplied water ‍to the plant.

Besides reactors, there are spent fuel pools at each reactor site used to cool down used nuclear fuel. Without water supply to the pools, the water evaporates and temperatures increase, risking fire.

An emission of hydrogen from a spent fuel ‌pool caused an explosion in Japan's Fukushima ​nuclear disaster in 2011.

Energoatom said the level of the Zaporizhzhia power plant cooling pond had dropped by more than 15%, or 3 metres, since the destruction of the dam, and continued to fall.

Ukrainian officials previously said the available water reserves may be sufficient to operate one or, at most, two nuclear reactors.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)