The IAEA reiterated this Sunday, given divergent data, its request for access to the site where the water level of the reservoir used to cool the reactors of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is measured.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), permanently present at the site, “need access to them to clarify the reason for the significant discrepancy observed between various measurements,” according to a press release from this UN agency.
“I hope they can go there very soon to make an independent assessment of the situation,” insisted its general director, Rafael Grossi, who is expected in the coming days.
The destroyed dam after an explosion
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper on Tuesday caused flooding in the neighboring municipalities of this river and raised concerns about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) – the largest in Europe – which is located 150 km upstream and is occupied for the Russians.
Since this disaster, for which both sides blame each other, the level of the reservoir has decreased “rapidly”, from 17 to 11.27 meters on Sunday morning, according to data received by IAEA staff.
But now the information diverges: if the management of the plant reported a “stabilization” this weekend, “apparently the descent continues in other points of the immense reservoir, causing a possible drop of about two meters” while it is a “parameter key for pump management”.
Reactor surveillance
Currently, these do not operate continuously, and the plant can have a large retention pond and other reserves sufficient “for several months,” recalls the IAEA.
Even if the six reactors are fired after the mois, it will constantly refrigerate the fuel of the cores of the units even if the cells are placed in the pools of pools “in order to avoid a potential fusion accident and radioactive jets in the ‘environment”.
The Zaporizhia power station has been repeatedly fired upon and disconnected from the power grid seven times since it was seized by the Russian army on March 4, 2022, ten days after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
