A fireplace broke out at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear energy plant on Sunday, with Moscow and Kiev blaming one another.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared information of the fireplace in a publish on X, which featured a dramatic video that appeared to point out smoke billowing from a cooling tower. “We now have data from Nikopol that Russian occupiers set fires on the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear energy plant,” Zelensky mentioned, noting that radiation ranges have been regular.
Enehodar. We realized from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers set hearth to the Zaporozhye nuclear energy plant.
At the moment, radiation ranges are inside regular limits. Nevertheless, so long as Russian terrorists proceed to regulate nuclear energy vegetation,… pic.twitter.com/TQUi3BJg4J
— Vladimir Zelensky/Vladimir Zelensky (@ZelenskyyUa) August 11, 2024
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Zaporozhye, blamed the fireplace on a Ukrainian drone on Telegram. “Tonight, a cooling tower at a nuclear energy plant caught hearth because of an incendiary drone strike,” he mentioned. “The Ukrainian regime, with the help of NATO, is systematically shelling your complete northern area. [region] with drones, and [artillery]”.
Balicki mentioned the fireplace was beneath management and mentioned in a follow-up publish that radiation ranges have been regular. The United Nations Worldwide Atomic Power Company mentioned it was monitoring developments and that nuclear security wouldn’t be instantly affected. It additionally mentioned it had requested a direct inspection of the plant.
“These reckless assaults endanger the nuclear security of nuclear energy vegetation and enhance the danger of nuclear accidents. They need to cease now,” IAEA Director Basic Rafael Mariano Grossi mentioned in an announcement.
The world has been paying shut consideration to the Zaporozhye nuclear energy plant for years. Russia took management of the ability plant early in its official floor invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A fireplace additionally broke out however was rapidly introduced beneath management.
Photographs of cooling water towers on hearth in Ukraine have everybody on edge, and for good purpose. The Chernobyl catastrophe launched massive quantities of radiation into the world’s air, permitting the world to see the worst-case state of affairs of a nuclear leak. However nuclear energy plant know-how has modified considerably for the reason that days of Chernobyl, and it’s unlikely that any reactor at Zaporizhia would expertise such a extreme meltdown.
However you understand, the combat over nuclear energy vegetation continues to be dangerous. This will likely occur in one other place quickly. The Zaporozhye hearth comes as Ukraine’s floor invasion of Russia’s Kursk area comes near the Kursk nuclear energy plant. The Kursk NPP is smaller than the Zaporozhye NPP, however there are all the time dangers concerned in working close to nuclear materials.
“At this second, I want to name on all events to train most restraint to keep away from a nuclear accident that might have critical radiological penalties,” the IAEA’s Grossi mentioned.
