Shutdown of Zaporizhzhya NPP reactors would not mitigate safety risks - Zaporizhzhya interim administration to U.S. proposition

MOSCOW. Aug 30 (Interfax) - A possible shutdown of Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant reactors would not keep the power plant safe to the fullest extent, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Main Council in the interim Zaporizhzhya regional administration, said.

He thus responded to a proposal by Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby that the Zaporizhzhya NPP reactors be temporarily shut down.

"Please note that the United States has made an official statement, not just at the level of experts, journalists or energy specialists, but at the level of White House, to say that the reactor shutdown is the safest solution to the Zaporizhzhya NPP problem," Rogov said in a live program of the Rossiya 24 television channel (VGTRK).

"What would this lead to? It is not that a reactor can be shut down and restarted later. This is not how it works. A reactor can be shut down within five or ten seconds, but it would take years to cool down the reactor and drive colossal amounts of water through it, millions, tens of millions of cubic meters, so that the process of secondary fission, an uncontrolled process, does not start," he said.

"It will not be possible" to restart the reactor after that, Rogov said. "In fact, it would be necessary to build a new [plant], which means the losses would be colossal," he said.

"Besides, that would not mitigate the risks, and that's the problem. The intensity of attacks has been growing. It has grown by 70% over the week," Rogov said.