“In Zaporijjia, there may be a collapse of the nuclear reactor core, as in Fukushima”, fears a “liquidator” of Chernobyl

He has an official card of “liquidator” of Chernobyl: Vitaly worked at the time as assistant to the chief operating officer of reactor number 3 of the plant which exploded, the April 26, 1986. At 82, he was treated for stomach cancer resulting from radiation. He is, of course, worried about bombings near the Zaporizhia power plant in Ukraine.

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The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned Thursday, August 18: any damage to this nuclear power plant would be a “suicide”. Vladimir Putin himself agreed on Friday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) send a mission to the nuclear power plant, saying he fears that the bombings could end up causing a “large-scale disaster”. Russia has occupied the plant since early March, and it has become the target in recent weeks of strikes that Moscow and kyiv accuse each other of.

And the fighting around Zaporijjia brings back very bad memories for the “liquidators” of Chernobyl, those hundreds of thousands of men who were dispatched to the scene of the disaster with very little or no protection. But Vitaly fears a Fukushima-like scenario more than a new Chernobyl: “The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has very thick walls and the reactor body is protected by a reinforced concrete construction, which was designed to withstand the hit of a very heavy aircraft. But in Zaporizhia there may be a collapse of the reactor core which can cause a leak, as in Fukushima.“

For this former engineer who worked for thirty years on the Chernobyl site, it is more the Russian nuclear power plants of Leningrad, Kursk and Smolensk which constitute a real threat, because their reactors were built on the same model as that of Chernobyl. And Vitaly willingly calls the Russian president a fool: “This idiot who has gone mad brandishes the threat of Zaporijjia. He does not understand that, right next to him, there are nuclear reactors which could explode at any moment. For the whole world, for Europe, for Ukraine, for Russia, we must not let it happen!“

For him, there is no doubt that it is the Russians who are behind the attacks on Zaporizhia: “The Ukrainians will never fire on their nuclear power plants! The current Russian government is so despicable, it lies! It is the Russians who are playing with fire. They stored there explosives, military devices, shells, missiles. Is it possible to do this on a nuclear power plant?“, he cursed.

Vitaly has lost 30 kilos since his cancer. He undergoes treatment twice a year at a medical center in kyiv, which specializes in people who have been irradiated.