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Kakhovka reservoir burst to averted, water being discharged — Rosenergoatom

Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told earlier that a possible failure of the dam due to the high level of water would cause flooding of the territory of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and several settlements in the Zaporozhye Region
A view of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Energodar Erik Romanenko/TASS
A view of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Energodar
© Erik Romanenko/TASS

MELITOPOL, May 6. /TASS/. Risks of the burst of the Kakhovka reservoir’s dam has been warded off after specialists began to discharge water, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told TASS on Friday.

He told TASS earlier that a possible failure of the dam due to the high level of water would cause flooding of the territory of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and several settlements in the Zaporozhye Region.

"As we anticipated, a technical solution to the problem has been found. A floodboard of the Kakhovka hydropower plant has been opened and repair works have begun at the Kakhovka canal: pumps and remaining pipes are being restored. Water is being discharged. The risks of flooding have reduced considerably," he said, citing sources in the administration of the Kherson Region.

He stressed that the threat would be removed when the water level in the reservoir is bacckto normal.

Earlier on Friday, Karchaa said that the high level of water in the Kakhovka reservoir could not be attributed to natural factors. The redundant water had been accumulated artificially.

On Thursday, Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the We Are Together With Russia movement, told TASS that the level of the Kakhovka reservoir had risen by 17 meters to 2.5 meters above normal. This situation, he stressed, creates certain risks the dam might fail. Rogov speculated that tens of thousands of people might find themselves in a flooded zone.