MOSCOW, April 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's nuclear power plants remain secure, so there is no need for special inspections this year, the head of the country’s nuclear regulator said Wednesday.
“Talking about safety, it has been and still remains at a very high level, which is an even more serious matter after the Fukushima disaster,” said Alexei Aleshin, the head of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor).
“Regarding nuclear energy, the safety culture is highly impressive, in contrast to other industries," he added.
According to Aleshin, the accident at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant pushed Rostekhnadzor and state-owned nuclear company Rosatom to review the country's nuclear security.
“We plan no further inspections at nuclear facilities. We have no grounds for this. We are working in a standard mode, once a year we check each facility, and watch the situation at all the stations on a daily basis,” said the head of Rostekhnadzor.
No incidents have recently been reported at Russian nuclear power facilities by the safety watchdog.
Fukushima was the world’s worst nuclear disaster in the 25 years since Chernobyl. In March 2011, Japan was hit by a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent 14-meter (46-foot) tsunami that flooded four of the six reactors and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of explosions and a partial meltdown.
