“If the Zaporozhye NPP is shut down”: is such a scenario possible?

“All four 750 kV transmission lines from the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant go to the right bank of Ukraine,” says Professor Vladimir Kuznetsov. – The work of gas stations in Ukraine has been mostly stopped, the share of coal-fired thermal power plants is insignificant. Only 15 power units remain at nuclear power plants. They have Rivne and Khmelnitsky nuclear power plants, but the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is the most powerful. It provides from 15 to 20% of all electricity generated in Ukraine. A significant part of electricity, about 5-6%, Ukraine sells to the EEC countries.

– What will be the consequences if the Zaporozhye station is stopped?

— The Zaporozhye station, where 6 power units are operated, was built at one time to supply metallurgical giants — the plant named after Ilyich and Azovstal in Mariupol, as well as Zaporizhstal, where electric arc furnaces are installed.

The communication line that goes to Mariupol is not working now, the factories have been destroyed. Zaporizhstal, most likely, is also worth it. If this line is restored now, Zelensky will raise a cry that Russia is stealing electricity from the Ukrainian station. Attacks on power lines will intensify.

Electricity in Mariupol now comes from Donetsk. Three weeks ago, the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation said that it would not be difficult to restore the lines of communication between Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk. The gigantic merit of the Soviet Union was that the country’s unified energy system was created, which still has the right to exist.

(Experts say that one of the 750 kV lines from the Zaporozhye NPP goes to the Kakhovskaya HPP and is further distributed along the lines that supply electricity to Kherson, Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk. — Auth.).

— Kherson can be supplied from the local thermal power plant. For Energodar, they will find a line with a small capacity, they will supply electricity from Luhansk or Donetsk. Stopping the ZNPP may affect the industrial areas of Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, and Zaporozhye. But there is the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, where there are three million-plus power units (total capacity of 3,000 MW). Ukraine also has Khmelnitsky and Rivne nuclear power plants.

Vladimir Kuznetsov draws attention to the speech of John Kirby, coordinator of the US National Security Council for strategic communications, who announced the need to stop the reactors at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

Five months ago, Professor Kuznetsov proposed to stop the ZNPP power units. “MK” wrote about this repeatedly. Now the United States has come up with a similar initiative.

– According to John Kirby – in order to reduce the risks of possible radiation contamination during shelling of the station. From the answer to the question of who is shelling the nuclear power plant, he left. But the station of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to strike. On August 29, the roof of special building No. 1 was pierced. Everyone saw the footage with the resulting hole in the roof. But there is stored fresh nuclear fuel of the American production of the Westinghouse company for the nuclear reactors of the Zaporizhzhya NPP. There is not only a site for handling fresh nuclear fuel, but also installations for the processing, storage of liquid radioactive waste, as well as a site for packing solid radioactive waste into 250-liter drums.

(According to the military-civilian administration, the radiation background in the Zaporozhye region after the shelling remains normal. — Auth.)

– An IAEA mission is coming to the Zaporizhzhya NPP from Austria to “understand the issues of the status of the NPP, its operation and the damage caused.” What can be said about the composition of the delegation?

— Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi is carrying 13 people with him. Of the 14 people who make up the team, 10 do not represent those countries that have nuclear energy. That is, the professional, technical level of the people who represent the IAEA is negligible.

In Italy, in 1990, the last power unit of the station was closed; the country has been without nuclear energy for more than 30 years. There are no nuclear power plants in Poland, just like in Lithuania (the Ignalina NPP was closed in 2004). And there, as part of the team, there are representatives from Albania, Jordan, Mexico, North Macedonia, where a nuclear power plant is not even planned to be built.

In fact, the delegation consists of only representatives of two countries where there are nuclear power plants. These are China and France. Of these, only China is constructively disposed towards Russia. I really want to believe it.

And the same French, the France 2 TV channel, spread a fake a few days ago. They passed off a dilapidated ventilation pipe on a building near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant as a stuck tail of a Russian rocket. (Later, the editors of the channel apologized to viewers for the unfortunate mistake. — Auth.)

The IAEA delegation is going to the station through the territory of Ukraine. In Kyiv, according to Professor Kuznetsov, “they will be brainwashed.”

– It is reported that several people from the IAEA delegation may remain at the Zaporozhye station on a permanent basis.

“There is a great danger here. It seems to me that a provocation will inevitably be committed against them. God forbid, one of them will suffer, based on the fact that these are UN employees, a statement will immediately follow that these workers must be protected. And peacekeepers can be sent to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Russia will be asked from there.

In no case should IAEA representatives be left at the station. The way they come, they issue an act of prescription, our side will get acquainted with it. All. No signatures are allowed. Otherwise, then they will accuse Russia of all mortal sins.