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Record high water levels can overwhelm a pioneer dam in southern Ukraine and damaging parts of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, a Russian official told TASS on Thursday.
If the Nova Kakhovka dam ruptures, the power cable line to the pumping stations of the Zaporizhia station will sink, said Rinat Karcha, advisor to the general director of the nuclear power company Rosenergoatum.
“This (will create) functional problems for the operation of the plant and risks for nuclear safety,” he told TASS.
Last November, after Russian forces withdrew from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, satellite images showed significant new damage to the dam.
Both sides accused each other of planning to breach the dam using explosives, which would flood most of the area downstream and potentially cause great havoc around Kherson.
Karcha’s comments marked a sharp contrast from those made in late March by Ukrainian officials, who said they feared the Zaporozhye plant would face a shortage of water to cool the reactors by late summer because Russian forces had left water from the reservoir that supplied the plant.
Russian forces seized the factory when they invaded parts of Ukraine last year. It is at the heart of a nuclear security crisis due to the near constant bombing in its vicinity that Kiev and Moscow blame each other for.
If the Nova Kakhovka dam ruptures, the power cable line to the pumping stations of the Zaporizhia station will sink, said Rinat Karcha, advisor to the general director of the nuclear power company Rosenergoatum.
“This (will create) functional problems for the operation of the plant and risks for nuclear safety,” he told TASS.
Last November, after Russian forces withdrew from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, satellite images showed significant new damage to the dam.
Both sides accused each other of planning to breach the dam using explosives, which would flood most of the area downstream and potentially cause great havoc around Kherson.
Karcha’s comments marked a sharp contrast from those made in late March by Ukrainian officials, who said they feared the Zaporozhye plant would face a shortage of water to cool the reactors by late summer because Russian forces had left water from the reservoir that supplied the plant.
Russian forces seized the factory when they invaded parts of Ukraine last year. It is at the heart of a nuclear security crisis due to the near constant bombing in its vicinity that Kiev and Moscow blame each other for.
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