“We know that the Russians mined the Zaporizhia power plant”, says an independent nuclear safety expert

What is really going on at the heart of the largest nuclear power plant on European soil? Kiev has been warning since mid-June that the Russians are preparing an assault on the Zaporijjia power plant, to blame Ukraine and sow further chaos in this conflict.

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If the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visiting the plant in mid-June, recognized that the situation is “serious”, its director general then assured, on June 29, in an interview granted to France 24, that there was no evidence that Moscow would prepare an assault on the plant.

A threat thoughvery real“, according to Olga Kosharna, an independent expert in nuclear safety met in kyiv by franceinfo. This former member of the Ukrainian nuclear monitoring board assures us: “I’m not afraid of anything and I don’t think my critical expert point of view could harm my country. On the contrary“.

“Scorched Earth Policy”

Lately, Olga Kosharna has said that she rather agrees with her government, which warns of the threat “very real“, according to the expert: Russian troops are preparing to cause a nuclear accident at the plant, which has been occupied for more than a year.

She accuses:Since August 2022, it is known that they have installed ammunition, heavy weapons and that they have mined the plant. You have to understand the logic of the Russians: when they can’t manage to stay in control of something, they practice a scorched earth policy. That’s what they did at the Kakhovka dam, and you have to understand the logic of the Russians: when they can’t manage to stay in control of something, they practice a scorched earth policy. That’s what they did at the Kakhovka Dam.”

“I am convinced that the central is the trump card they have up their sleeve to stop our counter-offensive”.

Olga Kosharna

at franceinfo

IAEA “legitimizes Russian action”, says nuclear safety expert

According to the expert, the most feared scenario would be that the Russians accuse Ukraine of having blown up a cooling system of the plant, which would lead to a nuclear accident with radioactive leakage. The consequences would be limited on the five reactors which are stopped cold, she believes, but much more serious on the last reactor still stopped hot, and that the Russians refuse to switch over cold.

Olga Kosharna is very angry with the IAEA and its boss Rafael Grossi. “During his last visit to Zaporizhia, he had been asked to insist that the Russians should put reactor No. 5 into cold shutdown. But he didn’t say a word!“, says the expert. “The IAEA mission has no influence on technical decisions, and it legitimizes the action of the Russians, continues Olga Kosharna. In my opinion, their experts should simply be evacuated, because the Russians could hold them hostage and use them as human shields when they have to leave.”

Olga Kosharna especially regrets that these alerts do not seem to be heard by Ukraine’s Western allies. It recalls that many European countries, including France, have very close and long-standing ties with the Russian atomic industry, in particular to buy or transit the uranium consumed by our power stations.