New threat at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: nuclear fuel expires, there’s no one to replace it

The nuclear fuel used at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) reactors will expire soon. The problem is aggravated by the absence of staff who would change it as needed.

Source: Petro Kotin, the acting head of the Energoatom state nuclear company management, in his column in Ekonomichna Pravda

Details: The first batches of fuel were loaded into the ZNPP reactors back in 2017, and its life cycle, determined by the manufacturer, is six years.

Quote: "Further usage of this fuel violates the conditions of technical specifications, determined by taking into account the security norms, and may lead to the destruction of integrity of fuel elements and, as a result, to a nuclear accident."

To solve this problem a security analysis must be conducted. If its results require unloading the fuel from the reactors, then a lot of other questions, to which there are so far no answers, will arise. It is a technical issue, and technical issues can be solved by competent, experienced and licensed NPP technical management and engineers.

"There is no such staff at the ZNPP. On 3 February 2024 the Russians drove out the last remaining competent employees of Energoatom (about 400 persons), mainly the licensed ones. There are no people capable of making complicated decisions on which nuclear and radiation safety of the facility depend on," Kotin states.

Kotin adds that there is no staff able to carry out complex operations connected with security either. The "specialists" brought from Russia have neither expertise, nor experience, since the modern ZNPP is drastically different from Russian nuclear plants.

Read also: How Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is falling apart and world is ignoring danger

Background: The occupied ZNPP is staffed with two times less workers than needed. Nuclear fuel used at the plant is expiring.

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