MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The risk of an accident at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant will increase if alternative power supply to the plant is not provided amid power line failures, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev told reporters on Thursday.
"The first and main task is to provide the plant with an alternative power supply, regardless of military action. This task should be solved in days (in the next days - TASS). Otherwise, as the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency - TASS) informed the world community, in case of unstable supply, the risk of accident will increase," he said.
Now, Likhachev stated, "almost all power lines are destroyed and, unfortunately, the Ukrainian armed forces do not allow to restore them." According to him, only one line is in relatively stable condition: the Dnepropetrovsk line, which goes across the line of contact of troops, across the Dnieper River. "It was torn up this night, for example. The generators turned on. But then the line was restored. So our task, and I talked to the IAEA Director General about this, is to start restoring power lines that go not only to the territories controlled by Ukraine, but also to Russian territory," he summarized.
According to Likhachev, any de-energizing of the plant is an increase in its vulnerability, and therefore, in its safety. "It is clear that the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has its own power supply systems. These are 18 regular and 20 so-called Fukushima mobile generators. There is a reserve of diesel fuel for about 17 days, which we will naturally maintain. In addition, in cold weather or during a cold shutdown, we will be able to keep the power plant in a relatively safe condition," the Rosatom CEO said.
However, he continued, this measure also increased the plant’s vulnerability and could be used by the Ukrainian military, "especially in cases where there is direct target shooting at the plant, including the safety system". "Therefore, of course, the optimal safety model is to operate the plant in steady state mode and take the power generation out to powerful transmission lines," Likhachev explained.