Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants have been reconnected to the national power grid after going completely offline earlier this week. This was announced by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday. The plants were disconnected from the power grid for the first time in Ukraine’s history on Wednesday, following the recent spate of Russian airstrikes on vital infrastructure.
However, the fear of a nuclear accident has not been allayed, on the contrary. Petro Kotin, 61, the president of Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, tells “The Guardian”: “In all 40 years of operation of the Ukrainian nuclear industry, nothing like this has ever happened.”
Emergency stops increase the risk of accidents
The nuclear power plants are all equipped with different protection mechanisms – to prevent a meltdown and explosion like in Chernobyl 1986. Systems would be shut down immediately and diesel generators would be started to cool the fuel elements. However, repeated attacks leading to further emergency shutdowns would put enormous strain on all parts of the plant.
Kotin compared the process to a car traveling at 200 kilometers per hour and then making an emergency stop. “It has all sorts of consequences, like deforming the valves — and there are a lot of valves between the reactor and the turbine,” he said. Ultimately, the damage could have implications for nuclear safety, says Kotin.
Oleh Korikov, chief inspector of nuclear safety of Ukraine, adds that the risks increase with every emergency shutdown. “Any use of a reactor scram can cause an accident,” Korikov said. “With this shutdown process, the likelihood of equipment failure or personnel error increases.”
“They use it as a military base”
A former Zaporozhye worker who has been in contact with the current workers said they saw no sign of a Russian withdrawal, the British newspaper writes. On the contrary: the soldiers in the factory prepared for a long winter and moved their sleeping quarters to the canteen.
“It is illegal for heavy weapons to be in a civilian nuclear facility. They use it as a military base to protect their heavy weapons, which they house in the turbine halls of reactors one and two,” Kotin said. a terrible situation for fire protection. If there’s a fire, you can’t put it out because you just don’t have access – because all the free space in the turbine halls is full of all these vehicles.”
Rafael Grossi, 61, the director-general of the IAEA, has been trying for months to negotiate the establishment of a “safety zone” around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, where shelling would be prohibited, but Ukraine insists that such a zone should be are completely demilitarized. (chs)