BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4
By Farid Zohrabov - Trend:
The fire at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya NPP, which is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and the hostilities around it, pose a big threat to the region, Director General of the Institute of Radiation Problems of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Islam Mustafayev told Trend.
Mustafayev said that if there's an explosion at the plant, which consists of six power units, then its consequences can be much bigger than the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
“Not only the damage to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, but also the hostilities around it may cause the explosion of a nuclear reactor,” he added. “If the cooling system is damaged, an accident will be inevitable. As the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is located far from Azerbaijan, the radiation from the explosion is unlikely to reach our country.”
However, Mustafayev said that if radioactive isotopes get into the Volga-Don Canal, they can reach Azerbaijan.
“Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is located near the Black Sea,” Mustafayev said. “If the Black Sea is polluted with radiation, then it can get into the Volga and the Caspian Sea. In case of an explosion at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, all the Caspian countries may suffer.”
The fire at the Zaporizhzhya power plant in eastern Ukraine was extinguished at 08:20 (GMT+4) on March 4.
“Nobody died or was injured as a result of the fire,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations said earlier.