MELITOPOL, March 24. /TASS/. Foreign journalists and bloggers visiting the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) were shown a piece of a US-made shell used by the Ukrainian armed forces to attack the plant's territory, NPP’s director Yury Chernichuk said.
"I wanted to show you something. I gave [International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael] Grossi exactly the same thing during one of his visits. This is a fragment of a US shell that was used to attack the plant. We found this piece on the site. During our tour, I will show you this location," Chernichuk said during a conversation with media representatives and bloggers from India, Australia, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
Then, according to the video posted on the ZNPP Telegram channel, the plant director conducted a guided tour of the site and showed the guests the place where the shell fragments were discovered. These are the bowls of splash pools, the technical water from which, as Chernichuk explained, "provides cooling for the fuel in the reactors" of the ZNPP. He also showed journalists damage from cluster shell fragments elsewhere on the plant's grounds.
"The Ukrainian president's statements about this plant sound alarming," a representative of TV9 Bharatvarsh, an Indian television channel, said. "Personally, I would like to understand how safe this plant is so the world can be reassured that a Chernobyl-like disaster will not happen again. Obviously, when you visit a frontline area, especially Zaporozhye, where conflicts continue, it's frightening," he emphasized.
An associate professor at Indonesia's oldest journalism training university said her visit to the ZNPP allowed her to draw several conclusions. "If you truly aim to promote peace and humanity, you make every effort to do so. And I see it here. All these brilliant and dedicated people working here in this high-risk zone are making every effort to keep this high-tech facility operational. I would like to express our sympathy and encourage you to continue your work," she said.
The ZNPP, located in Energodar, has six power units with a total capacity of 6 GW. It is Europe’s largest nuclear power generation facility. At the end of February 2022, the facility was seized by Russian forces. Since then, Ukrainian military units have periodically shelled both residential areas in Energodar and the plant itself using drones, heavy artillery, and multiple rocket launchers. All six units of the Zaporozhye NPP are in a cold shutdown mode and are not producing electricity.