Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of setting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on fire.
AFP reported that the fire started in one of the cooling towers of the nuclear power facility that has been under Russian control since 2022. The report cited a Russian official at the facility who said the fire had been “completely extinguished”.
The official, as well as the Russian governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, blamed the Ukrainian army for starting the fire. Zelensky, on the other hand, blamed the Russian forces for starting the fire.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported multiple explosions heard at the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility and a statement by the plant’s management that these were the result of drone attacks.
“Cooling towers are used during power operation of the plant,” the director of the IAEA said in a statement. “Their damage does not directly impact the safety of the six units in shutdown. However, any kind of fire on the site or in its vicinity represents a risk of spreading the fire also to facilities essential for safety.”
“These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
In another statement, the IAEA said it had requested access to the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant in order to assess the damage.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe. It was built during Soviet times and attacks on it tend to raise fears of a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster even though that was not a result of any military action on the territory of the facility.
The site has seen several attacks, since the Russian forces captured in back in March 2022, with the two sides trading accusations for who is responsible for the attacks.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
