Scientist: Current knowledge allows building safe NPPs

The current knowledge in the nuclear power industry allows for designing and building safe nuclear power plants (NPPs), Deputy Director of the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Rafael Arutyunyan told a press conference hosted by BelTA on 25 April.

When asked on which is the main weakness of modern NPPs: applied technologies, human factor or unpredictability of natural calamities, the scientist noted that “every case is directly connected with the human factor: either at the stage of designing or exploitation.”

“As for the human factor in the Fukushima disaster for instance, the operating organization ignored the peculiarities of the NPP site and did not provide the required modernization measures in time, which would secure the necessary protection for the NPP during the earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese watchdog also failed to perform its function as specifying the requirements for the needed modernization in order to put the Japanese NPPs in compliance with the modern security standards,” Rafael Arutyunyan said.