1/ The Kakhovka reservoir has reached 'dead pool' only two days after it was breached, and is no longer able to supply settlements or the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It's expected to stabilise at a drastically lower depth and to shrink the Dnipro's width by kilometers. ⬇️
2/ The head of Ukraine's hydroelecticity provider, Ukrhydroenergo, has said that as of the evening of Thursday 8 June, the reservoir has reached a depth of 12.5 metres (41 ft). This is 20 cm below the point known as 'dead pool', when water can no longer flow from the reservoir.
3/ Ihor Syrota says that water can now no longer flow to settlements and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The water level is likely to stabilise at around 3 m (9 ft). It's dropping aaround 1 m daily, so the outflow will continue for another 7-8 days.
4/ When it reaches 11 m it will also no longer be able to supply the North Crimean Canal and other irrigation channels serving southern Ukraine. At the current outflow rate, the canals' water supply will be cut off by Sunday. (See below for related threads). https://mastodon.social/@ChrisO_wiki/110501875648197341
5/ According to Syrota, "If the dam in the lower part is destroyed to the very base, the reservoir will be no more than three metres deep, and the reservoir itself will decrease in width from 3.5 km, as it was before the explosion, to 1-1.2 km, meaning the Dnipro riverbed will return to how it was before the construction of the reservoir itself."
6/ Syrota comments that half of the plant is now completely submerged and the other half is 70% underwater. The earthwork between the lock and the station is also submerged and is being eroded.
7/ These two US Army maps from 1950 show how the Dnipro looked between Zaporizhzhia and Kherson before the dam was built. It won't be quite the same now, but it gives some idea of its natural contours when un-dammed. (You'll need to right-click and view the images in a new tab to see them in full detail – they're very big.) /end
It is time for #NATO to finally act, even if just to defend its territory from a nuclear disaster. If there is no cooling, I am afraid that the #Fukushima-style (福島第二原子力発電所) melt-down could happen in #Ukraine.
@HistoPol I've read elsewhere that the on site cooling ponds have several months (I think the article said 6) of water supply. Meaning there was time to make alternative water source arrangements.
Thanks. What I heard to today is that they have been able to pump water into these cooling ponds for a couple of months only, like you wrote (I think it said 6, too.)
Once the are dried up, though, the cannot be replenished with the existing pumps anymore, as the water in the adjacent river will be to shallow in the future.
@HistoPol that may be true, but it is possible to extend the pipes to where the water is. Hard to do in a warzone and requires work by the IAEA as well as world leaders to enable the work to be done safely but technically feasible outside the human factors.
The cracked containment in Fukushima on the other hand is not repairable with current technology due to the location and extremely high radiation.
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Yes, I was thinking of this, too. This is why I am calling for a #UN mandate carried out by #NATO for a #DMZ around #Ukraine's #NPP's, in particular #Zaporizhzhia's (#Запорізька.)
However, from my own experience with pumps, they have a limit regarding the heights. I think they said something like 12 mtrs. (39 ft.)
Regardless, once that limit, whatever it is, is reached, you need completely new (more powerful) #pumps. That is much more difficult than extending #pipes....
...Besides, power supplies and/or transmissions for he new pumps might also be inadequate.
#Regarding#Fukushima, (I need to watch this new #Netflix series), my understanding is that the reactor overheated. This would, in my limited understanding about #NPP's, be what the continuous cooling-water supply would be needed for to prevent.
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