Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant faces possible staffing crunch

By SUSIE BLANN and YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s atomic energy company is claiming that Russia plans to relocate around 3,100 Ukrainian staff from Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Energoatom warned Wednesday that the plan could result in a potential “catastrophic lack of qualified personnel” at the Zaporizhzhia facility in Russia-occupied southern Ukraine. Energoatom said local workers who signed employment contracts with affilates of Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom following Moscow’s capture of the Zaporizhzhia plant early in the war are set to be taken to Russia along with their families. Energoatom didn’t specify whether the employees would be forcibly moved out of the plant. It also wasn’t immediately possible to verify Energoatom’s claims about Moscow’s plan.