A fire in a cooling tower at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear station in Ukraine has been completely extinguished, and both Ukraine and Russia say there’s been no increase in radiation levels around the station.
After the fire broke out Sunday, the two countries immediately blamed each other for a potentially disastrous risk at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, Le Monde reports. While Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, said shelling by Ukrainian forces started the fire, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attributed it to Russian occupiers. Both said background radiation levels in the area were unaffected.
“Currently, the radiation indicators are normal. But as long as Russian terrorists retain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal,” Zelenskyy said.
“A video published by Zelensky showed black smoke billowing out of one of the station’s cooling towers as red flames licked around the bottom,” Le Monde writes. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed “strong, dark smoke” after multiple explosions but reported no impact on nuclear safety, the Thomson Reuters news agency says.
“Team was told by (the nuclear plant) of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site,” the IAEA said on social media.
“The six reactors at the plant located close to the front line of the war in Ukraine are not in operation but the facility relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident,” Thomson Reuters adds. “Moscow and Kyiv have routinely accused each other of endangering safety around it.”
