The status of cooling water supply at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam will most likely not allow for the restart of normal operation at the six-unit facility in the near future and it “could be difficult and take years”, according to Attila Aszodi, dean of the science faculty of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Aszodi said in a blog for the Brussels-based European Nuclear Society it is conceivable Zaporizhzhia will not be restarted until the Nova Kakhovka dam is rebuilt or another way is found to secure stable water levels on the Dnipro river.

All six VVER-1000 reactor units at Zaporizhzhia have been shut down since late 2022, meaning cooling needs have decreased.