Defenses raised at Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant after surrounding region loses electricity in drone attack
The city of Kurchatov and several neighboring districts in the Kursk region lost electricity on the evening of August 9 due to a Ukrainian drone attack on a local transformer substation, according to regional officials. “As a result of debris from a Ukrainian aircraft-type UAV hitting a transformer substation in one of the districts, a fire broke out,” acting Governor Alexey Smirnov reported on his Telegram channel.
Update: Regional officials report that power has been restored in Kurchatov and the surrounding area.
In addition to Kurchatov, where the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located, electrical outages have also been reported across the region in the Kurchatovsky, Oktyabrsky, Bolshesoldatsky, Oboyansky, and Belovsky districts. According to the Telegram channel Typical Kursk, the towns of Volokno, Voroshnevo, and Pryamitsyno are experiencing disruptions to their supplies of electricity and water.
The news outlet Blotnot reports that officials began blocking the access roads leading to the Kursk NPP on August 9. An anonymous source told journalists at iStories that the power plant has redeployed men as guards after allegedly “shipping off” the previous contingent of National Guardsmen to Ukraine. The station’s management has reportedly encouraged staff to take unpaid leave and evacuate their children from the area. iStories also reported that rotation workers have been leaving a construction site at the plant. On August 9, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom confirmed that it’s reduced the number of construction workers at Kursk NPP.
The Kursk station is one of the three largest nuclear power plants in Russia. The Putin administration has reportedly instructed the state and pro-Kremlin media to avoid inciting any fears about threats to the Kursk NPP. Meduza’s analysis desk notes that Ukraine’s incursion force hasn’t penetrated within 50 kilometers (more than 31 miles) of the station, and the likelihood of these ground forces reaching the Kursk NPP is very low.