The spokesman for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant confirmed on Thursday night that due to the continuous Russian bombing of the area the plant would be on fire and there would be danger of a nuclear threat. “The Russian Federation team is firing on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. There is a real threat of nuclear danger at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant“, he stressed, according to the Unian news agency. For his part, the mayor of Energodar, Dimitro Orlov, has confirmed that the attacks in Zaporizhia continue. “The battles continue in the ascent to the nuclear plant. Our national guardians uphold the defense. Victims are known, but not the exact number,” the mayor confirmed on his official Facebook profile.
On March 1, the International Energy Agency (IAEA) lost contact with the automatic radiological monitoring stations located in the city, which is the largest nuclear site in Ukraine. There they house six of their 15 reactors. Ukrainian specialists are trying to determine the cause of the loss of data transfer from the Zaporizhia NPP and to restore it. In addition, the IAEA has approved a resolution condemning the seizure of several Ukrainian nuclear power plants by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday that “Efforts continue” by Russia to reach the outskirts of Zaporizhia and Mariupol, two strategic enclaves that would allow Russia to close the siege and advance to other points such as Dnipro and Odessa. In recent days, residents of Energodar and Zaporizhia have attempted to block roads to slow down the advance of Russian troops.
“within the rules”
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported today that the fire is “within the rules” and clarified that it broke out in a building outside the plant itself. “The condition of the fire in nuclear power plants is within the norm,” he said in his Telegram account. According to this official source, the fire occurred in the training building “outside the nuclear power plant” itself. He explained that the third unit was disconnected from the single energy system and that only the fourth is in operation.
He also added that while the fighting continues, the emergency services are unable to extinguish the fire. “The rescuers are on standby,” he said.
The director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, today called for the use of force to stop and warned of the danger of hitting nuclear reactors. Grossi spoke tonight with the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmygal, and with the regulator and operator about the “serious situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” according to the IAEA director in a message posted on his Twitter account. The regulator told the IAEA that “no changes in radiation levels at the nuclear power plant site have been reported,” according to a message posted on Twitter by the international body.