Russians cause incident with water leakage at ZNPP's power unit 4

An incident has occurred with water leaking from the first reactor circuit into the second due to the switching of the fourth power unit of the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to hot shutdown mode, in violation of the licence conditions and Ukrainian nuclear energy operator Energoatom’s requirements. There was no radiological leakage into the environment.

Source: Energoatom, Ukraine's national nuclear energy operator

Quote: "This happened due to a violation of the integrity of the third steam generator, located in the unit’s containment. Therefore, the occupation leadership began to transfer the fourth power unit of the ZNPP to cold shutdown mode.

At the same time, the invaders will transfer the sixth power unit of the ZNPP to hot shutdown mode during the next three days, which is another violation of the licence conditions and Energoatom’s requirements," the state company said in a statement.

"The incompetent and illegitimate ‘management’ of the ZNPP from Rosatom is consistently disabling the units of the seized plant.

And this crime with intentional damage to the equipment of the fourth power unit, which led to the violation of the integrity of three of the five existing physical barriers to the spread of radiation, the leakage of potentially radioactive water from the first circuit beyond the established limits, and damage to the expensive equipment of the first circuit, will be investigated," says Petro Kotin, the President of Energoatom.

Kotin says that all those involved in the incident who continue to carry out Rosatom's orders and bring the equipment of all power units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP to a critical state will be identified and prosecuted after the NPP is liberated.

Kotin added that the 750 kV high-voltage communication line was repaired, and the ZNPP was connected to the main power line on 10 August at 19:02.

The 750 kV ZNPP-Dnipro line, the main power supply for the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP, was damaged on the night of 10 August. After that, the plant had to be switched to the only available backup line of 330 kV, the disconnection of which threatened the loss of external power, i.e. a blackout.

Background:

• It was reported that the Russians would switch the fourth power unit of the Zaporizhzhia NPP to cold shutdown mode due to a detected technical malfunction, but at the same time they plan to launch the sixth unit of the plant in hot shutdown mode.

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