MOSCOW, October 1 /TASS/. Ukraine’s reports about power outages at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are an attempt to distract public attention from the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP, cut from power as a result of Ukrainian shelling, a nuclear industry expert told TASS.

"In my opinion, there is no threat of a nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP. The Ukrainian ministry’s statement is an attempt to divert the public attention from the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP, which has lost external power supply as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces," said Alexander Uvarov, who heads the Atominfo analytical center.

The Ukrainian energy ministry reported earlier in the day that the Chernobyl NPP had lost power, including the New Safe Confinement - a structure put in place in 2016 to confine the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s Reactor 4, destroyed during the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986.

"If we believe in the Ukrainian ministry’s statement, power outages could probably affect the ventilation system of the New Safe Confinement (NSC)," the Russian expert said, adding that international specialists have examined the possible scenarios of the ventilation system’s total failure.

"It was demonstrated that even if the ventilation system remains out of operation for ten days, the facility will continue to operate normally, except for cases that happen in rare weather conditions (for example, strong winds in certain temperatures). Such weather conditions are not observed in the Chernobyl zone," the expert added.