By KYIV. May 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 1,500 employees remain at the Zaporizhia NPP who refused to sign contracts with the fake JSC Zaporozhye NPP Operating Organization and are waiting for the arrival of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to continue working at the plant after its de-occupation with the Ukrainian leadership.
This was stated by President of the state-owned enterprise National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Petro Kotin during the national telethon United News on Thursday.
“We really hope for the personnel who remain at the plant, and which the ruscists could not take out of its territory because these specialists are needed to maintain the plant even in the state it is in now,” he said.
As reported, ZNPP has not been producing electricity for distribution to the grid since September 2022, five power units of the plant have been put into cold standby and one into hot standby.
According to Kotin, the company has information from most of the 1,500 patriotic employees that they will not leave the facility anyway.
In addition, as the head of Energoatom said, another 6,500 workers are staying in the satellite city of ZNPP Enerhodar, to whom Energoatom continues to pay salaries, but who were not allowed by the Russian occupiers to come the plant due to their open pro-Ukrainian position.
Kotin also confirmed the information about the intention of the Russians to take out 3,100 nuclear workers from Enerhodar, 2,700 of which signed a contract with the fake JSC Zaporozhye NPP Operating Organization.
“The occupiers who are at the plant have already conducted several training sessions on very quick packing and departure from the plant [the indicated 3,100 people]. That is, Rosatom conducted such training so that they could get together as soon as possible on command and leave the plant,” the head of the company said.
As he explained, if 3,100 people are removed from ZNPP, there will be a shortage of personnel for the current operation of the plant.
“Now, we are preparing rotation teams that will be able to go there and who will be able to maintain its safety for the first period, while our military is working to clear the plant,” the head of Energoatom said.
As Kotin added, the speed of the return of Ukrainian personnel to the ZNPP after the de-occupation of the plant will depend largely on how quickly the Armed Forces of Ukraine can clear it.
“Here the question will be how quickly the military will let us in there because the entire plant is mined, the perimeter is mined, the plant is divided into zones, passages, approaches and everything else is also mined. That is, the military will have to do all this work and then provide us opportunity to go there,” he said.
