Viktor Orlov, innovative project manager at NIKIET

— Probability of accident at NPP is 10 -7

The scenario of the past emergency training at Leningrad NPP was unreal. It was an artificial situation staged specially for the personnel so they could show their ability to respond to the most serious emergencies. The existing safety technologies are effective enough to prevent any nuclear accident. The probability of an accident at a modern NPP is 10–7. This is a very small figure.

As you may know, on Sept 19–21 Leningrad NPP hosted a complex emergency training. During the training Rosenergoatom checked up the preparedness of the plant’s personnel and equipment and its ability to effectively interact with the REA Emergency Response Group and Crisis Center.

Representatives of nine states – Armenia, Germany, Korea, Norway, the United States, Ukraine, Finland, France and Sweden – came to observe the event. All of them confirmed the high safety of the Russian NPPs.

“Of course, the problem of safety will always be topical. We are planning to produce reactors that cannot fail even theoretically. We are working hard to enhance our safety. Today, our NPPs are safe — all inspections and trainings have proved that. When our opponents remember Chernobyl, they forget that at that moment our plants had worked for just 1,000 reactor/years. Today, we are much more experienced. We have considered all our mistakes and have launched new much safer reactors. After all, if nuclear energy was unsafe, Japan and France would not develop it so actively. And our technologies are not worse than theirs.”