No Energoatom employees left at Russian-occupied Zaporizhia NPP – head of company
There are no personnel of Energoatom left at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP), occupied by Russian aggressors, acting Board Chairman of the Company Petro Kotin said.
"Our experienced personnel are no longer there. During February, the occupiers removed the last of our people who remained loyal to Ukraine and ensured security at the plant," he said during an event dedicated to the second anniversary of the occupation of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, which occurred on March 4, 2022.
He added that by the beginning of the year there were 360 company employees at the nuclear power plant, while now they are denied access to the station.
According to Energoatom, 60% of the shift supervisors of power units (40 people) left the temporarily occupied territory, with 12% (eight people) Ukraine broke off their labor relations, 14% (nine people) have their passes blocked by Russians and are not allowed to enter their workplaces due to their refusal to sign contracts with them; the same number of jobs remains vacant.
"That is, they now have only eight shift supervisors left - people directly responsible for nuclear and radiation safety," Kotin noted.
He emphasized that now there are Russian personnel at the Zaporizhia NPP, but they cannot reliably operate the plant.
"The nuclear units at Zaporizhia NPP have undergone modernization, the projects are significantly different from Russian ones, and Russian personnel, who have not been licensed in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, cannot reliably operate them. In addition, they recruited personnel from surrounding cities and towns who do not understand at all, what a nuclear power plant is - they saw it from afar," the head of Energoatom explained.
According to the company, at the beginning of 2022, almost 9,000 workers worked at the plant.