Residents of three oblasts to evacuate in case of emergency at Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant
Zaporizhzhia NPP (Photo:REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
In the event of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the population within a radius of 50 kilometers around the plant will be evacuated, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Ukrainian national television on Aug. 9.
"There are coherent plans to evacuate the population if a nuclear emergency occurs on the territory of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant,” Starukh said.
“These plans were devised in peacetime... According to these plans, 275,000 people from the 50-kilometer zone are subject to resettlement. These are residents of Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.”
According to Starukh, the reactors at the plant, the largest in Europe, are quite reliable – they are designed for various contingencies and can withstand shocks. At the same time, the situation with the storage of spent nuclear fuel is more difficult, he said.
State operator Energoatom previously published what it claimed was a statement by the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces of Russia, Major General Valery Vasiliev, who threatened that if the Russian troops were forced to withdraw from the plant, they would leave a "scorched desert" there.
It has not been verified that Vasiliev made such a statement, however.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also confirmed that the Russian army had indeed mined the nuclear facility.
The Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, has called on the world community to respond to Russia’s threats, as not only the fate of Ukraine is at stake, but also that of the entire planet, he said.
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