Inserts:
00:06 Nick Connolly / DW Correspondent / Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Plant
00:38 BOHDAN LOTOTSKYY / LEAD REACTOR CONTROL ENGINEER
02:47 DMYTRO HRUBOI / POWER UNIT SHIFT SUPERVISOR
03:59 Nick Connolly / DW Correspondent / Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Plant
04:37 PAVLO KOVTONYUK / ACTING CEO ENERGOATOM
05:45 Report / Nick Connolly

Script: 
0.00 TRAINING CONTROL ROOM - LIGHTS FLASHING, PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND 
 
ATMO FREI 
 
0.04 STANDUP - ME IN FRONT OF PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND AS PART OF SIMULATION 
  
These power station workers are training for something that used to be a rare emergency and that's now become routine because of Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy system. 
[00:52] Their job is to reduce this power station's output in a matter of minutes to avoid disbalancing the whole country's energy grid.  
 
0.19  
 
ATMO FREI 
 
0.21 TRAINING CONTROL ROOM - LIGHTS FLASHING, PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND 
 
This is a 1:1 copy of the real control room on the same site, here at the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant.  
 
Everyone taking part in these exercises works in the real control room and has to deal with the fallout from Russia's strikes on the grid. 
 
0.35 SOT BOHDAN LOTOTSKYY/LEAD REACTOR CONTROL ENGINEER 
 
Before [the war] this kind of incident almost never happened. It all started after Russia's invasion and the outages that caused to the grid. 
We have very little time to react. If the dispatchers tell us to reduce our output to 75%, we can do that in half an hour. If we lose power from outside and have to disconnect from the grid, then that will take us a day to reconnect afterwards.  
 
1.04 CUTAWAYS OF CONTROL ROOM  
 
Russian strikes on the grid cause two distinct problems the engineers here have to respond to. 
 
Sometimes Ukraine's energy system can't take all the electricity this power station produces because of damage to high voltage lines and substations that move power around the country. They have to reduce output to avoid overloading the system. 
 
Other times though they have the opposite problem - not enough power in the system. Nuclear power stations usually get electricity from outside to cool their reactors. When that's cut off they have to fire up diesel generators for backup.  
 
Russia hasn't hit Ukraine's nuclear plants in the way it's taken out conventional power stations because contamination from a radiation leak would likely spread to Russia as well.  
 
But the worst case scenario, a direct hit on one of these plants, isn't out of the question.  
  
Four years into this war, all international attempts to exclude Ukraine's nuclear sites from the fighting have failed.  
 
Russian drones and missiles are not giving these facilities a wide berth. 
 
2.02 PIX OF CHORNOBYL DRONE DAMAGE  
 
Back in 2025 a Russian Shahed drone damaged the steel structure which shields the site of the world's worst nuclear accident at Chornobyl.  
 
2.12 REUTERS STORY SCREENSHOTS + KINZHAL ARCHIVE STILLS 
 
Last month Ukraine's prosecutor general told Reuters that thirty five Russian Kinzhal  missiles had come within 20km of this power station in Khmelnytskyi region.  
 
Given the speeds at which these missiles travel that means they would only have to change course for a matter of seconds to hit the station. On purpose or by mistake. 
 
2.31 FILE INSERT (ARCHIVE PIX OF KINZHALS) 
 
About half of those documented incidents saw the Kinzhal missiles first fly over Chornobyl before flying over this plant. The Ukrainians say that has to be calculated intimidation.  
 
2.40 CUTAWAYS OF CONTROL ROOM  
 
Dmytro is the senior engineer on shift in the control room. 
 
2.46 SOT DMYTRO HRUBOI/POWER UNIT SHIFT SUPERVISOR 
 
I was on shift when an air alert came on. We were told that a missile attack was possible.  We have instructions [in case something like that happens], we know what needs to be done. 
We were lucky that time, we dodged that bullet. 
 
I really hope it never gets that far. Everyone knows what the consequences [of a direct hit] would be.   

3.16 CUTAWAYS 
 
But even when there isn't an acute risk of a direct hit. The overall situation around the grid is so unstable that these engineers aren’t allowed to leave the control room during their shifts. Even briefly. 
 
3.26 SOT DMYTRO HRUBOI/POWER UNIT SHIFT SUPERVISOR 
 
Everyone who's in charge of [the reactor] has to be in place all of the time. Before we could take it in turns to go to the canteen, but as long as the war lasts our food is brought over to us.  
 
3.44 TURBINE HALL 
 
The one operational part of the plant we are allowed to visit is the turbine hall.  
 
Inside these giant machines steam generated by the reactor spins the turbines and produces electricity.  
 
3.57 STANDUP ME IN TURBINE HALL  
 
You don't need me to tell you that it is incredibly loud here and it's also incredibly hot, but most Ukrainians are very glad that this station, this power plant is in operation. Nuclear 
power plants like this one are basically the only thing keeping the lights on in Ukraine right now. They are the only bit of Ukraine's energy mix that Vladimir Putin can't destroy without endangering Russia. 
 
4.17 TURBINE HALL/REACTOR SHOTS FROM OUTSIDE 
 
Last winter, when Russian strikes on Ukraine's conventional power stations were at their peak, nuclear power provided about 70 percent of the country's electricity. 
 
4.28 ME AND PAVLO KOVTONYUK 
 
The head of Ukraine's state-controlled nuclear energy company tells us Russia was always going to be able to cause significant damage. 

4.36 SOT PAVLO KOVTONYUK/ACTING CEO ENERGOATOM 
 
They know the system inside out. The grid was designed during Soviet times, they know how it works. They know where to hit to stop us getting our power out from nuclear power stations.  
 
4.49 CUTAWAYS ME AND CEO WALKING 
 
And how to terrify the people working at these plants. Kovtonyuk spells out quite how close Russian missiles have come. He says some missiles came within 10km of this site in what he calls 'nuclear terrorism'.  
 
5.03 SOT PAVLO KOVTONYUK/ACTING CEO ENERGOATOM 
 
We can't be sure that the Russians [won't hit these sites]. We can't know what's in their heads.. If they're willing to target civilians and peoples' homes. We have to be ready for the worst case scenario.   
 
So far the psychological impact on our staff is the biggest issue we've faced. People who run a nuclear reactor need to get their sleep and stay calm.  
 
5.42 REACTOR FROM OUTSIDE 
It seems unlikely that they'll be getting that sleep uninterrupted by air raid sirens any time soon.  
 
Four years into this war the outside world has largely given up trying to impose a ceasefire around these nuclear sites on Russia.  
 
Even the slightest error could bring catastrophe to the region on a scale not seen since Chornobyl forty years ago. 
  
6.00 END