A mass extinction of fish is taking place in the Zaporizhya Nuclear Power Plant’s cooling pond, Energoatom reports.
Due to the shutdown of the plant’s reactors, there is no influx of warm water into the cooling pond, and the water temperature there has dropped to about +13 degrees Celsius. This led to a massive fish die-off.
25 years ago, to ensure the environmental purity of the pond, it was stocked with warm-water tilapia and Asian catfish. Previously, the water temperature in the pond never fell below +18 degrees in winter, and the fish spawned.
If the water temperature in the cooling pond does not rise soon, about a thousand tons of dead fish will be washed ashore.
