The authorities of Zaporizhzhya spoke about the possibility of restarting the ZNPP power unit

SIMFEROPOL, 11 Sep — PRIME. The applied mode of “cold shutdown” of the 6th power unit of the Zaporozhye NPP allows it to be restarted in the future, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, told RIA Novosti.

He explained that the power unit was transferred to the “cold shutdown” mode.

“The power unit does not generate electricity. But the fact is that the unit itself is forced to consume electricity to remove heat and cool the reactor. Therefore, backup diesel generators are now working, this is a temporary solution,” Rogov said.

He added that the remaining power units of the nuclear power plant are also in the “cold shutdown” mode. This allows, in case of carrying out the necessary work and guaranteed power output, to restart the power units.

“The cold shutdown mode makes it possible to restart the power unit. But to start, a large amount of equipment must be turned on, which is why one of the units was used, among other things, to generate electricity for the needs of the station itself,” Rogov said.

Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper near the town of Energodar. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and installed capacity – the plant has six power units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. Since March, it has been under the protection of the Russian military. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that this step was justified in order to avoid leakage of nuclear and radioactive materials. The Ukrainian military continues to regularly shell Enerhodar and the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant adjacent to the city.