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Why Russia does not give up control over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the occupied Energodar. What risks does the presence of the Russian military and employees of Rosatom in the ZNPP territory bring for Ukraine and the world? Olha Kosharna, an independent expert on nuclear security, spoke about this on the air of the Dom and UA TV channels.
Who, besides the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was supposed to influence the situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant? Which organizations and what should they have done?
The Russian military seized the ZNPP on the night of March 3-4, the assault was with the use of heavy weapons, this caused a fire. Then, together with the Russian military, representatives of Rosatom entered. And all these six months they are there on a rotational basis.
And these are not just employees of Rosatom, these are people from the leadership of Russian nuclear power plants.
They are sent there so that the military does not damage some critical security systems from ignorance. Because they need the whole station.
And initially, the Russian Federation had a plan to capture not only the Zaporizhia NPP, but also the South Ukrainian NPP (in the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, Mykolaiv region, – ed.).
The situation has escalated since August 5, when regular shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant began. The Russian occupiers smashed the distribution lines of 330 kilovolts, and now two power units are operating at the Zaporizhia NPP, which supply power to the only high-voltage lines of 750 kilovolts.
At the same time, there is a protocol under the Geneva Conventions, which says that it is impossible to conduct military operations against objects that contain threats, it is clearly indicated there: dams and nuclear power plants.
Next is the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, Article 2, which lists all the crimes that are under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Everything that the Russian Federation has done both in the Chornobyl zone and at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is all subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
When the shelling began, it turned out that the International Atomic Energy Agency has no tools to influence the Russian Federation. They cannot initiate a criminal case, issue administrative fines, or impose any sanctions.
But this situation very much excited the whole world. And US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is being used by the Russians as a nuclear shield to shell the unoccupied cities of Nikopol and Marganets [Dnipropetrovsk region], realizing that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not shoot back.
If the nuclear power plant stops, will not give energy, what will happen? What is the main danger of this?
When the station is operating, it uses part of the energy for internal needs.
And if the only remaining line is broken, then you need to think about the schemes, because there are still internal needs. If this line is interrupted with the unified power system connecting it, then standby diesel generators, mobile diesel generators are switched on, they have a standard fuel reserve of 10 days. During this time, it is necessary to repair not only this line, but also distribution lines for 150 and 330 kilovolts.
Now the situation at the station is critical. There should be a headquarters of the best specialists with the participation of Ukrenergo, who understand everything about the networks, we have a system operator – Energoatom. We need to think about how to maintain safety, because if there is no external power supply, this will lead to the fact that the reactor core begins to melt.
In the event of a single meltdown of the reactor core, with the loss of external power supply, the accident will be similar to the Fukushima one (the radiation accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 occurred on March 11, 2011 as a result of a strong earthquake – ed.).
Therefore, the situation is critical. Now work is underway to prepare the IAEA mission to the station.
If Russia misses this mission and the mission is able to come to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, then the danger is over?
No, the danger has not passed. The fact is that everything has already been violated according to the norms and recommendations of the IAEA, radiation monitoring has been periodically violated. The physical integrity of the station is broken, incomprehensible people walk there – some kind of bloggers, military men. Ammunition was brought into the machine rooms. The station staff is under pressure.
A protective hermetic shell at nuclear power plants, how resistant is it to shelling?
That’s the thing, no one knows. When designing, it is designed for the fall of a light aircraft, but with regard to a cruise missile that carries explosives … Nobody expected this, you understand?
Yes, there is a hermetic shell, there are filters, there are hydrogen recombiners so that there is no hydrogen explosion, as at Fukushima-1. But these simulations are designed for core meltdown.
It cannot be compared with the Chornobyl accident, absolutely impossible. Because if, God forbid, this happens, then the molten mass will be inside the reactor vessel. There is a possibility and risk that the hull may burn out, and then this molten mass will go into the ground.
But for an accident to happen, it is necessary that the diesel generators break down there, and there are 20 of them. And while they are working, there is time to make a decision, to deliver fuel, there is time to restore power lines.
And what are the factors that do not depend on people, but can affect the scale of the threat?
Cruise missiles that Russia produces. They have oblique-curved missiles, which generally do not know where they will hit. Just recently, in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region, a cruise missile hit and destroyed a house – this is 49 km from the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
The situation did not depend on people at Fukushima-1, there was an earthquake and a tsunami. And at the Zaporizhia NPP, everything depends on people. And from the invaders, and from the literacy of our staff.
Why are the Russians trying to connect the Zaporizhia NPP to the Russian energy system?
Burglar Syndrome. Russia is a robber country. When the war began in 2014, they also took out entire factories from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Now they are stealing grain.
Stealing an entire nuclear power plant is probably a special pride for them.
Where can they redirect this energy? For Crimea, of course, this is a lot. But they wanted to redirect the main part to the occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, to Mariupol and to the border. They need it to supply the territories they occupied with supply to the Krasnodar Territory, although there are also nuclear power plants there, but there is a shortage of electricity.
