The incident with the leakage of water from the first reactor circuit to the second at Zaporizhzhya NPP Unit 4 was the result of irresponsible and unpredictable actions of the Russian army, the acting chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, Oleh Korikov, has told the news telethon.
According to him, a nuclear power plant, like a thermal power plant, produces steam. For this, a nuclear facility is used, which operates with the help of radiation.
"A nuclear power plant has a set of measures in place to ensure that, in addition to steam production, it actually protects the population from unacceptable radiation exposure. Barriers are being built on the way of radiation spread," he said.
Currently, the occupiers have breached one of these radiation barriers.
"This is what happened in terms of safety at Unit 4: the integrity of one of the barriers to the spread of radiation into the environment was violated. That is, the first circuit - the water that washes the nuclear fuel - appeared in the second circuit, which should be used to generate electricity for turbine generators. In fact, due to the irresponsible and unpredictable actions of the occupiers, the integrity of the barrier was breached," Korikov said.
The water leakage incident at Unit 4 occurred on 11 August. Energoatom said that this was the result of the forced shutdown of the power unit.
On the night of 10 August, Zaporizhzhya NPP, temporarily seized by the Russian military, lost power from the main 750 kV external power line.