The main fire at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has been extinguished, the Russian news agency TASS reported on the night from Sunday to Monday, quoted by Reuters, citing the Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom.
“At approximately 8:00 p.m., a fire broke out in the technical water supply system at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. As a result of the incident, cooling tower No. 1 caught fire and other technological equipment was damaged,” Ukrainian energy company Enerhoatom reported on Telegram.
This was confirmed by Rosatom, quoted by the TASS agency. According to the Russian occupation authorities, the cooling tower was out of service and there is no risk of radioactive contamination for residents of the city of Enerhodar, near which the power plant is located.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday evening that there were “no signs of a nuclear safety threat” at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. in Enerhodar in the south Ukraine.
In a statement published on Platform X, the agency said experts saw clouds of black smoke rising from one of the power plant's cooling towers and that the plant's management told them the plant had been attacked by drones.
Experts reported that earlier a series of explosions were heard at the power plant, which is under Russian occupation.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Telegram that “the Russians started a fire in the cooling tower of the power plant” and that since taking it over, “they have been using it for nuclear blackmail.”
“Currently, radiation indicators are normal. But as long as Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear power plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal,” the Ukrainian president stressed.
The Russians, however, maintain that “the power plant was attacked by a Ukrainian kamikaze drone.”
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, is occupied by Russia from the beginning of March 2022.
Since then, Russian troops have repeatedly shelled the power plant area, thus creating – in the opinion of the authorities in Kiev – a radiation threat with consequences that are difficult to predict.
Main image source: facebook.com/zelenskyy.official