The president of Ukraine’s state nuclear company — Energoatom — told CNN that the power units at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant remain in a cooling state while work continues to restore power lines from the plant. Speaking to CNN via Skype, Petro Kotin said all seven lines connecting to the plant were damaged and that it had switched to what he called “island mode” — where the plant supplies electricity solely for itself. “We tried to extend the operation of one of our power units for as long as possible, even in the conditions where it was operating in island mode. It worked for us for three days,” he told CNN. Kotin said only one of the six power units remained operational and was supplying the plant’s needs – the electricity needed for the pumps that cool the nuclear material. The reactors “are full of nuclear material, fuel and also there are six pools that are near the reactors in each power plant. They have to be cooled all the time,” he said. “The danger is that if there is no power, the pumps will stop and there will be no cooling and in about an hour and a half to two hours you will have a meltdown of that fuel that is in the reactor,” he added. . Kotin reiterated that when there is no external power supply, diesel generators could be brought in. “From today the diesel generators can run there for ten days.” “We are also doing our best to secure additional supplies. But we understand that it is very difficult to get anything in there. The railway is damaged, so it can only be done by vehicles,” he said. “If now there is a loss of external power, then we will have only one option. The diesel generators,” he added. Kotin said representatives of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), remained at the plant. “They have meetings with plant management twice a day, so they have all the current information about the operation of the plant,” he said. As for the IAEA’s proposal for a safety zone around the plant, Kotin said: “We don’t fully understand what exactly that safety zone means.” He reiterated the Ukrainian government’s line that the plant should be returned to Ukrainian control and the power plant itself and the zone around it should be demilitarized.
