Vienna, June 7 – Rafael Grossi, Director General of the agency, said in an interview with the News Agency that the destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP could deprive the Zaporizhzhya NPP “in the medium term” of cooling sources and cause “very serious” damage to the reactors.
He stressed that this is possible with a further deterioration of the situation, but now there is no reason for panic.
“In the short term, in the not too distant future, there may be, I say, some consequences if the situation deteriorates or becomes worse than it is now. But we are not there yet. The situation is serious, let’s put it that way.”
He explained that after the accident there was a “gradual decrease in the water level … in the cooling pool which is very important” to lower the temperature of the reactors.
“If we lose cooling capacity, there could be a meltdown (in the reactor core), and there could be some radiological consequences, plus the fact that the reactors themselves could be damaged very seriously. Plus there could be environmental consequences,” Grossi said. There will be some consequences and of course we need to take them fully into account.”
The loss of reactor cooling at one time led to a disaster at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1. In several units of this nuclear power plant, nuclear fuel smelted in the reactors and accumulated at the bottom of the containment. The explosions of the resulting hydrogen damaged or completely destroyed the roofs. This led to radioactive leakage and contamination of a vast area around the station.
“Disaster is near.” What will happen after the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is destroyed
Yesterday, 1:50 p.m
