A possible blowing up of the reactors of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP) by Russian occupiers will not lead to large-scale consequences of contamination of the territory and the population, comparable to the Chornobyl accident, Head of the State Nuclear Regulation Inspectorate of Ukraine Oleh Korikov said during the United News national telethon on Tuesday.

"Today, we have all six reactors at the Zaporizhia NPP in a state of shutdown. They have not been operating for nine months or more. That is, the state of residual heat release in the fuel is rather small and, in fact, under the current situation we do not expect aerosol impact on the territory and the population," he said.

At the same time, as the head of the inspectorate explained, the territory adjacent to the ZNPP industrial site, the Dnipro River and beyond could be contaminated, depending on how the meteorological situation develops.

Asked whether the consequences of the explosion of the ZNPP would be comparable to the Chornobyl disaster consequences, Korikov said that during the Chornobyl accident, power unit No. 4 was operating and, accordingly, the volume of residual heat was very high, fragments of the reactor core went beyond its limits, and the aerosol release was very large.

"Here at the ZNPP we have a tank-type reactor, there is both a tank and a reactor casing, which provide barriers to the spread of radiation products into the environment. The shutdown of reactors is also a favorable factor as for risk reduction. We hope that here there will be no such consequences," the head of the inspectorate said.

He also did not confirm the fears about the possible appearance of an exclusion zone after the explosion of the ZNPP, similar to the Chornobyl exclusion zone.

"Terrorists act unpredictably, but if we take the current state of power units, nuclear fuel and the temperature in which they are as a basis for calculation, then the zone of [radiation] impact, as calculations show, may remain within the industrial site of the Zaporizhia NPP," Korikov said.

He said that the only option to ensure the safety of ZNPP is its de-occupation, demilitarization and return under the control of the legitimate operator represented by SOE National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and the legal body regulating nuclear and radiation safety represented by the State Nuclear Regulation Inspectorate.