Against the backdrop of the bombardment by Russians in the region, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s energy was knocked off for hours, as confirmed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine who related how lucky the country is to have evaded such a disaster.
In the meantime, Moscow has already refuted claims of attack news power plant.
Zelensky claimed that on Thursday, Russian bombardment caused fires to break out in the coal power plant’s ash dumps, cutting off the electricity to the nuclear complex, the biggest of its kind in Europe.
‘If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident,’ he said this while delivering an address.
‘Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster.’
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A fire in a forest next to the facility was blown out thanks to the Ukrainian military, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed administrator in the nearby captured town of Enerhodar.
He claimed that on Thursday, power was off for several hours in the nearby towns.
‘This was caused by the disconnection of power lines from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station as a result of provocations by Zelenskyy’s fighters,’ Rogov stated on Telegram that; ‘The disconnection itself was triggered by a fire and short circuit on the power lines.’
The plant, which has turned into a battleground in the six-month-old conflict, was completely disconnected for the first time, according to the Ukrainian national nuclear corporation Energoatom.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that although Ukrainian workers still run the factory, it has been under Russian administration since the country invaded Ukraine in February and conquered it in March.
The area has to be demilitarized, and the UN has requested access to the plant. According to agency Director-General Rafael Grossi, IAEA representatives are “very, very close” to being granted entry to Zaporizhzhia.
Fears of a nuclear disaster have intensified as Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of bombarding the plant.
The possibility of disruption to the plant’s spent nuclear fuel pools or reactors has been highlighted by nuclear specialists. A catastrophic meltdown could result from power outages required to cool the pools.
National security specialist and Yale School of Management professor Paul Bracken expressed fear that artillery or missiles may break through the facility walls and release radiation across a huge area, similar to the Chornobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
According to Bracken, a collapse at the Zaporizhzhia facility may ‘kill hundreds or thousands of people’ and cause greenhouse emissions to a far greater area that extends into Europe.
‘Russian Roulette is a good metaphor because the Russians are spinning the chamber of the revolver, threatening to blow out the brains of the reactor all over Europe,’ Bracken said.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear plant has been of huge concern as residents dread the emission of toxic and dangerous radiation in the case of an accident of deliberate attack on the facility.