There is no threat of structural collapse at the Zaporizhia, Yuzhnoukrainsk, Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants (NPPs).
"Speaking about the operating NPPs, I mean the Zaporizhia, Yuzhnoukrainsk, Rivne and Khmelnytsky NPPs, our company as the operator of Ukrainian NPPs has sent a letter of information to the plants asking them to conduct extra examination of all buildings and structures to check whether collapses are possible there," Energoatom's Inspector General and Safety Director Danko Biley said on Ukrainian Radio on Friday, according to the company's press service.
He added that the same examination was carried out at the operating NPPs a month ago and no damage to bearing structures was discovered.
Biley said Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is not subordinated to Energoatom. He also noted that "the partial collapse of the ceiling at the turbine room of Chornobyl NPP did not change the radiation levels, and the bearing structure of the sarcophagus over the fourth generating unit was not damaged."
On February 12, 2013, several concrete slabs fell off the ceiling in a turbine room at Chornobyl NPP. The site of the accident was an area of 600 square meters. As can be seen from pictures released by the Emergencies Service of Ukraine, the collapse occurred in the turbine room of Generating Unit No. 4, which was badly damaged in the 1986 disaster.
The radiation levels did not change on the territory of the Chornobyl NPP and in the Exclusion Zone around it. No one was injured by the collapsed slabs.
Deputy Head of the Information Department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Elena Smirnykh said on February 13 that the ministry's special laboratories in Bryansk and Smolensk regions have been switched to intensified regime of work.
"The situation is under control. The collapse didn't happen in the sarcophagus, but near it, and it didn't cause any hazardous consequences. We regularly contact the Ukrainian emergencies service's employees on duty to monitor the situation," she said.
Meanwhile, on February 13, French builders working on the construction of the new safe confinement at the Chornobyl NPP temporarily left Chornobyl to make sure themselves that it was safe to continue building work at the NPP.
Ukrainian National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom is the operator of all four Ukrainian-based operating nuclear power plants.
