Nuclear fuel at ZNPP to expire soon, no qualified personnel to replace it – Energoatom
Nuclear fuel in the reactors of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP will soon expire and there is no one to replace it if necessary, Acting Chairman of the Board of Energoatom Petro Kotin wrote in his column for European Pravda on Feb. 15.
The first batches of fuel were loaded into ZNPP reactors back in 2017, and its operational life, as defined by the manufacturer, is six years.
Read also: Zaporizhzhya NPP reliant on single power line, says state nuclear regulator
"Further operation of such fuel violates the terms of the technical specifications determined taking into account safety standards and can lead to the destruction of the integrity of fuel elements and, as a result, to a radiation accident," Kotin said.
Fuel replacement requires specially trained personnel, which is not available at ZNPP as a result of the occupation of the plant by the Russian military.
"There are no such personnel at Zaporizhzhya NPP anymore," he said.
“On Feb. 3, 2024, the Russians withdrew the last competent Energoatom personnel (about 400 people) from the plant, including licensed personnel. There are no people capable of making complex decisions on which the nuclear and radiation safety of the facility depends.”
Seizure of Zaporizhzhya NPP and the threat of detonation
ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russian troops seized it in March 2022. Employees were subjected to interrogation and torture, and there were reports of deaths.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 25, 2023, that Russian troops had mined four power units and a cooler at the Zaporizhzhya NPP and had approved a plan to detonate them. This could lead to the largest man-made disaster of all time.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, said in November 2023 that the "crisis moment" regarding the likelihood of the ZNPP explosion had passed, but the situation remained threatening.
Read also: Russia denies IAEA access to parts of occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP
The IAEA reported on Jan. 2, 2024, that the Russians continued to prevent the agency's experts from entering the reactor halls at Zaporizhzhya NPP.
The IAEA said on Jan. 19 that the Russians had again mined the perimeter of the plant, and that week the plant lost direct backup power to the reactor units for several hours.
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