Chernobyl would pale in comparison to strike on Kursk NPP — Rosatom chief

KALININGRAD, September 6. /TASS/. The potential devastation caused by a Ukrainian strike on a live reactor of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) would make the Chernobyl disaster look like a walk in the park, Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, said.
“Chernobyl would look like a minor incident compared to a military attack on a working 1,000 MW high-power reactor,” he said at a briefing following talks with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi in Kaliningrad, replying to a journalist’s question as to what kind of consequences could be expected in the event of a Ukrainian strike on the Kursk NPP.
On August 27, the IAEA chief arrived in the town of Kurchatov to inspect the Kursk NPP. During the visit, he saw evidence of drone attacks at the nuclear facility and remnants of unmanned aerial vehicles. Later, Grossi said the situation was serious and urged to avoid a nuclear disaster.
On August 8, fragments of downed Ukrainian projectiles were discovered on the premises of the Kursk NPP. The following day, a shelling attack by the Ukrainian army disabled an electrical substation which triggered emergency blackouts in the nearby town of Kurchatov. On August 22, Ukrainian forces attempted to attack the nuclear facility with a drone which was intercepted and eliminated near the spent nuclear fuel storage facility.