There is no danger of a nuclear power plant explosion during shelling. A whole chain of failures due to violent damage would have to occur in a radiation leak. In response to the night attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Bohdan Zronek, a member of the ČEZ board of directors and former head of the Temelin nuclear power plant, told Hospodářské noviny.
“There was no explosion, the material in nuclear power plants is completely unsuitable for that. On the other hand, what can happen is a loss of fuel cooling in the reactors and possible fuel damage, potentially even a leak of radioactive substances. That would already but a whole chain of failures must have occurred as a result of the violent damage, which, according to the information we have, does not indicate anything yet,” said Zronek.
After a Russian night attack on a Zaporozhye power plant in southeastern Ukraine, a fire broke out in a five-story training facility, which was later extinguished. Russian troops have taken control of the power plant, employees remain in place and check the condition of the nuclear units.
According to him, the Czech Republic has information through the World Association of Nuclear Power Plant Operators WANO that there was a fire in non-nuclear facilities. “So what is key to ensuring nuclear safety, according to our information, has not been affected,” he said. Two blocks are now being cooled because they have been shut down recently. According to him, there is no risk of cooling. “Cooling requires heat dissipation depending on how the blocks are designed. They are very robust, have backed up and interchangeable systems. All safety systems are also backed up in a ‘three times one hundred percent’ way, which means it’s enough that it always works only one system,” said Zronek.
According to him, there are a number of systems that can help and achieve the targeted state. “So if the power plant maintains the safety systems, the units will be able to cool down, maintain a safe condition to prevent damage to nuclear fuel, it should be fine. The second thing, however, is that the plant may not be able to produce,” Zronek told the newspaper. .
The Zaporozhye power plant has similar protection as, for example, the Czech Temelín. “All Zaporozhye blocks have a containment (concrete box) similar to the blocks in our Temelín. They are virtually identical, which means that they are really very robust,” said Zronek. According to him, the units were put into operation between 1985 and 1996.
According to him, nuclear power plants should be taboo during any conflict, ie they should be excluded from the fighting. “The whole world has always followed the rule that nuclear safety takes precedence. It was similar during the war in Yugoslavia, when the Krško nuclear power plant was taboo and no one even knew that such a facility worked there,” he said.
Source: Hospodářské noviny and CTK
