ROSTOV-ON-DON. July 19 (Interfax) - The Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant, located in Volgodonsk, Rostov region, says that no plutonium or other radioactive materials have been stolen from the plant.
This statement was a response to a publication in the British newspaper Guardian, which said that radioactive substances, possibly including plutonium, had been stolen from the plant.
Yegor Obukhov, head of the plant's press service, flatly denied this.
"We have security, which is the best in Russia. Not a single gram of radioactive substances has ever gone missing," Obukhov told Interfax. "One of the reasons why it is impossible to steal plutonium from the plant is that the Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant [which was called the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant before 2001 - Interfax] has no plutonium," he said.
"The plant uses a VVR-1000 reactor. It 's a water reactor, which was made by the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk. Uranium-235 fuel is put into this reactor. The Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant has never used and will never use plutonium. Plutonium is used in a fast reactor, for example, in the Beloyarsky Nuclear Power Plant," Obukhov said.
The stealing of other materials from the plant is out of the question as well, he said.
Alexander Turinsky, the head of the Federal Security Service's department for the Rostov region, believes the information published in the Guardian is "another whirl of psychological and information war, which Chechen rebels are fighting with Russia."
"No doubt this information will be checked by all competent state structures involved," Turinsky said. At the same time, even the first conversations with experts show that the reliability of this information is close to zero, he said.
Turinsky expressed his bewilderment about actions by U.S. officials, who, according to the publication, "shared this information with the Guardian, and not with representatives of the Russian Federation, their ally in the fight against international terrorism." This looks like "a double standard in the fight against terrorism," he said.
The Guardian reported on Friday, citing U.S. sources, that Chechen rebels had stolen radioactive materials from the Russian nuclear plant, possibly including plutonium. The newspaper alleged that the theft had been going on for the past 12 months and expressed the opinion that the materials could have gotten into the hands of terrorists.
The Guardian noted that the American statements were unclear, but quoted an unnamed U.S. official who allegedly said a considerable amount of plutonium might have been taken from the plant. The U.S. official is quoted as saying that among the materials stolen were radioactive metals such as cesium, strontium, and low-enriched uranium.