Due to the shutdown of the last power line, the cooling systems at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant are running on diesel generators, which could lead to the melting of nuclear fuel, as happened at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in 2011. This was reported by The Guardian.
According to the IAEA, the diesel fuel in the emergency generators at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant will last for about 20 days, but the agency’s head, Rafael Grossi, warns that the loss of external power significantly increases the risk of a nuclear accident.
Currently, seven of the 18 generators are providing cooling for the reactors, but if they fail, the nuclear fuel in six reactors could start to heat up uncontrollably, leading to the melting of the reactor core.
“An accelerated version of this scenario occurred at Fukushima, as the reactors had just been started up. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan, and the hot reactors at the facility were automatically shut down. Emergency generators continued to pump cooling water around the reactor, but they were knocked out by the tsunami that followed a few minutes later. Three nuclear reactors at the plant melted down within three days, although the fuel remained contained. No one was killed, but more than 100,000 people were evacuated,” the publication said.
Earlier, Zaporozhye Region Governor Yevgeniy Balitsky said that systematic artillery shelling of the ZNPP by the Armed Forces of Ukraine threatens the world with disaster.
