MELITOPOL, June 7. /TASS/. Renat Karchaa, adviser to the CEO of Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom, has said that the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant’s management hopes to put all the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) concerns to rest with regard to replenishing the spent nuclear fuel cooling pools at the plant during the forthcoming visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
"Grossi's concern in this regard is understandable, because one of the canals for replenishing water in the splash pools has become shallow - no water is flowing through it to replenish the pools. But this canal is not the only one; there are several ways to replenish these pools. And Mr. Grossi will be able to see this when he comes to the Zaporozhye NPP. We expect that his concerns in this regard will be allayed," he told TASS on Wednesday.
According to Karchaa, the Zaporozhye NPP is ready to show Grossi all the measures "taken to ensure nuclear safety [at the plant] during this difficult period, when the aggressiveness of the Kiev regime has again reached its peak."
On Tuesday, the IAEA head said that he would visit the Zaporozhye NPP next week. If the visit takes place, it will be his third to the plant since the start of Russia's special military operation. Grossi previously visited the plant in September 2022 and then in March 2023.
Earlier, the plant’s director Yury Chernichuk said that there are currently no threats to the plant due to the collapse at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), and the staff is monitoring the situation. He explained that the spent fuel cooling pools are an isolated system and have no direct contact with the environment or the water contained in the Kakhovka reservoir. The system of heat removal to the final absorber can be replenished both by water from the Kakhovka reservoir and by several alternative sources.
On Tuesday night, Ukrainian forces delivered a strike on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), presumably from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). The shelling destroyed the hydraulic sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In Novaya Kakhovka, the water level exceeded 12 meters at one point, but is now receding. There are currently 15 population centers in the flood zone; residents of nearby towns and villages are being evacuated. The collapse of the hydro plant's dam has caused serious environmental damage. Farmlands along the Dnieper River have been washed away, and there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal will become shallow.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack on the Kakhovka HPP as a deliberate act of sabotage by Ukraine. He added that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for the consequences.