„There is no official information about the event at the Kozloduy NPP, people from the plant called me and told me some things, I contacted competent people, I set things up myself and the situation is alarming for me, said atomic physicist Prof. Georgi Kaschiev in the bTV studio.
He explained that there is no danger to the environment and the population, but he himself is worried.
„The following appears to have occurred. Unit 6 is under repair to check a third steam generator that has defective tubes and to locate and seal them if any. For this purpose, a technological operation is carried out, which has been performed many times and in which the level of the heat carriers in the first circuit must be lowered after the steam generator has already been opened.
It is a system of jumped vessels, and if you need to lower the level in the loop, the level in the highest vessel must drop. To do this, gas is fed into it, not air, nitrogen. And now you have to find the right balance between the water you drain from the first loop and the nitrogen you feed into the highest container. So that the lost volume is compensated. A very gross mistake was made here, in which, I don't know exactly what happened, but the heat carrier started to flow out at a rather high speed and flow first through several depressurized flanges on the top cover of the reactor and through the open third steam generator, explained the atomic physicist.
He indicated that it was probably 3,000 buckets of radioactive water that had leaked and that the cleanup would be difficult for the people doing it.
„Everything happened within the hermetic volume. If there were people around the open steam generator, they could have been bathed in radioactive water. Those who clean it will take an additional dose of load”, explained Kaschiev.
He added that no one denies what happened, but there is no statement either.
Kaschiev also commented on the new American nuclear fuel.
„The Minister of Energy announced that the unit's full capacity has been reached, which is not true, and the unit is currently operating at reduced power. I assume that this is due to a prudent policy - not to hurry with the load at full power, especially until the block, which is under repair, is put into operation.
But we will still see if he can come out at 100%. It must then be seen whether there will be depressurization of the cartridges, because the pressure of the individual cartridges is different. "Whether the indicators will fall all the way in the faucet when the reactor finally opens next year, it must be seen whether there will be no distorted or deformed cartridges," he said.