Ukraine’s nuclear power plants fuelled by South Australian uranium
In war-ravaged Ukraine, nuclear power plants are keeping the lights on with SA playing a surprising role. But when the Russians took over Ukraine’s largest plant, things changed.
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In the first days of the war, Oleg – an engineer at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant – joined thousands of Ukrainians trying to block Russian forces from entering his home city of Enerhodar.
They dug trenches and placed antitank obstacles across the road into the city but by early March 2022, Russia would seize Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
Oleg, who asked his surname be withheld for security reasons, said in the months and years that followed, Russia would militarise the plant and go on to detain and torture many of its workers — including himself.
Torture and Degradation
When Oleg returned to work at the plant in March, 2022, he could barely believe what he saw.
Less than a month ago, workers were prohibited from driving a car into the nuclear facility.
Now, armoured personnel carriers and machine guns confronted staff arriving for their shifts.
The plant, he said, had effectively been turned into a military base.
They accused Oleg, who never signed a contract with Rosatom and had now been barred from the plant, of working for British intelligence and then of orchestrating a strike on the occupied city of Berdyansk.
“They beat us for two nights and only on the third morning the (Russia’s security services) FSB came to interrogate us,” he said.
“They ask a question, if they like your answer, nothing happens, if they don’t like your answer, they start beating you.”
While being detained, Oleg said he was also given electric shocks, at first through wires attached to his fingers and then through crocodile clips fastened to his earlobes.
“They told me they have my wife and daughter and that I could choose to work with them and get an 18-year sentence or get the execution article, as I’m a former Russian officer.”
“I didn’t believe they had my wife and daughter, I didn’t think it could come to that until they brought my wife out.”
Oleg said he was detained for eight days and released when the Russians couldn’t substantiate any of their allegations against him.
His family had been released earlier.
Since Russia occupied Enerhodar more than three years ago, many of the power plant’s 11,000 workers fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Oleg had tried to leave too, twice, but both times he had been turned back by the Russians at checkpoints. In February 2024, he finally made it to Ukrainian controlled territory.
In recent weeks, talk of Russian plans to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have resurfaced in the headlines.
But Oleg was sceptical.
“By the time I left it was in a terrible state,” he said.
“They’ve killed the station.”
Soon after, Russia started pushing staffers to sign contracts with its state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
“They told us Russia was here forever,” the 55-year-old said.
Oleg said those who refused to sign the contract were treated differently and prevented from accessing certain parts of the plant.
Those that did sign changed, seemingly overnight, he added.
“One day he would be saying he was pro-Ukraine and the next he would say Ukraine was at fault,” he said of a colleague.
People then started to disappear.
Sometimes they would turn up weeks later, having fled to Ukrainian controlled territory. Other times, they stayed missing.
Oleg, who served in the Russian navy as a lieutenant captain for a period in the 90s, said he started running into trouble after pointing out that the mortar shells Moscow claimed had been fired by Ukrainian forces couldn’t have travelled the distance from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
But it wasn’t until the Russians came to his home and found a photograph of him in uniform, pictured with British officers, that he and his son – who was studying cyber security – were taken to a detention cell at a police station, known as the “basement”, where they were beaten and tortured for days.
The Energy War
The 6 gigawatt nuclear plant is located in the Zaporizhzhia region, in the southern city of Enerhodar, which translates to ’‘gift of energy”.
However, the plant had stopped producing electricity and was now standing in a cold state, said Petro Kotin head of Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company Energoatom.
“There’s a degradation right now that’s taking place and there are a lot of concerns with nuclear and radiation safety,” Mr Kotin said.
Russia has also been using the territory of the plant to launch strikes on Ukraine and has accused Ukraine of firing on the plant, sparking fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The war has reshaped Ukraine’s energy landscape.
Since Moscow seized control of the Zaporizhzhia plant and launched a relentless campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the country has significantly relied on its three smaller nuclear facilities to keep the lights on.
South Australia has played a surprising role in helping power them.
Uranium from Australian mines – 166 tonnes of it in 2023 alone – has been helping power the Eastern European country’s nuclear facilities.
It’s currently sourced from South Australia’s three operating mines, exported to Canada, France and the US for processing and then retransferred from Westinghouse Sweden to the three Ukrainian-controlled nuclear power plants, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Australia has not approved the transfer of such materials to the Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since the start of the war.
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