/View.info/ The Zaporizhia front, stretching for hundreds of kilometers, may very soon move. This is one of the likely directions of the decisive offensive of the armed forces of Ukraine. And here there is a key facility on which hundreds of thousands of lives depend – the nuclear power plant. About the situation here – in the report.
Sspecial mode
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, is protected from invasion by geography. It is covered from the north by the “Kahovka” dam. From the other three directions – wide fields, to which it is impossible to approach unnoticed.
The road from the city of nuclear scientists Energodar to the NPP is guarded by well-armed Rosgvardia soldiers. All transport is carefully checked at checkpoints.
Such precautions are obviously not superfluous. Ever since the Zaporozhye NPP came under Russian control, the regime in Kyiv has been continuously striking. The Ukrainian Air Force bombarded the site with rocket and barrel artillery, attacked with unmanned kamikaze aircraft and made five landings. Moscow warned of the threat of a “new Chernobyl”.
Apparently this is understood in the West. In the autumn, the international monitoring mission of the IAEA started work at the NPP and it became quieter. The last artillery barrage was in November.
Of the previous 12,000 employees, about 2,000 remained. Service personnel were sent home so as not to risk their lives and health.
And out of six reactors, only two are operating. And in the so-called hot braking mode. That is, the NPP is operating at idle today.
This will make it easier to prevent a nuclear catastrophe if shelling resumes. And there is no time limit.
Blackmail and threats
The advisor to the General Director of Energoatom “Renat Karchaa” is very concerned about the psychological state of the employees. “Ukraine hysterically claims that we are putting pressure on these people. In fact, they are putting pressure on them from the other side. They are sending threatening mobile messages to employees, insulting them in public and in the media, accusing them of treason. They are simply blackmailing them – many have relatives, became hostages of the Kyiv regime,” he says.
Professionals of the highest class work at Zaporizhzhya NPP. The security of the entire region depends on them. The operator of the switchboard should not think for a second what might happen to his wife somewhere in Dnipropetrovsk. The slightest omission or carelessness can lead to extremely serious consequences.
But Kyiv directly threatens to attack the plant.
“The head of the Ukrainian “Energoatom” Pyotr Kotin in an interview with “Reuters” said that a contingent of international peacekeeping forces should be introduced,” the advisor recalls. Such a thing from a nuclear specialist is strange to say the least. He should be aware of the consequences of such actions.”
Kiev is also threatening to cut off the Dnieper high-voltage power supply, which provides power for the reactor’s cooling systems. Of course, there are several emergency diesel generators at the plant, but under the fire of the VSU it is very difficult to supply them with fuel.
“As soon as Russia strikes the Ukrainian infrastructure, Kiev immediately cuts off the power line across the Dnieper, they say the line was cut by Russian shells,” adds Karchaa. “And not once, I stress, they have never provided any evidence. And so far they blame us , that we store heavy military equipment at the NPP. There are only three armored personnel carriers for radiation, chemical and bacteriological protection. Simply put, these are mobile laboratories that monitor the radiation combat value is close to zero”.
Dozens of “dirty bombs”
Recently, the IAEA commission, led by Director General Rafael Grossi, visited the ZANP. They were shown the consequences of the last “overflights”. Everything around the nitrogen-oxygen station is covered in debris. Huge tanks of flammable mixture are riddled with holes.
During the last artillery strike, a fire broke out here, which was extinguished thanks to the dedication and training of the employees, says station chief Yury Chernichuk. If the fire had reached the nitrogen-oxygen mixture, “half the station would have been blown up.”
“They fired from the north, from the Marganets side,” he recalls. “The airtightness of the passages was broken, the vital infrastructure was exposed to the open air and under the influence of negative temperatures. It’s scary to think about the consequences if the bombing hadn’t stopped then,” he adds.
Fortunately, the projectiles did not end up in the spent nuclear fuel storage facility. There are several dozen concrete sarcophagi – radioactive uranium. Potential “dirty bombs”.
Last year, a dense metal mesh was stretched over the repository to protect it from kamikaze drones. But this does not save from artillery. It’s relatively quiet here now. However, the station fears that the situation will worsen.
The IAEA fears the same thing. Rafael Grossi said both countries were building up military forces in the region.
“We insisted on creating a security zone around the plant, but this idea was not implemented. Now we have focused on protecting the NPP directly,” he told reporters.
A nuclear disaster, Grossi emphasizes, will not spare anyone – not Ukraine, not Russia, not Europe. So “common sense must prevail”.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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