ALBAWABA - Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant (NPP), had a cooling system fire that was mostly suppressed. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the tragedy.
Zaporizhzhia NPP was built between 1984 and 1995 on the Dnipro River in southeastern Ukraine, at the western boundary of pro-Russian separatist-controlled Donbas. It supplies 4 million homes with power from six 950-megawatt reactors, the biggest in Europe and the ninth largest in the world.
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged blame for artillery and drone assaults on the factory, which Russia took over in March 2022. Before being captured by Russia, the facility supplied 20% of Ukraine's power. It has been "cold shutdown" since last year.
Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the self-proclaimed Regional Governor of Russian-annexed Zaporizhzhia, said a Ukrainian military strike caused the plant's cooling system fire yesterday. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia for the fire.
Rosatom said the fire had almost extinguished, and Russian officials said radiation levels had not changed. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) identified no nuclear safety implications and continues site inspections.
Russia's Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision said in writing that the plant's cooling system fire was contained and did not represent a hazard. Normal radiation levels are recorded for the plant's "cold" power units.
Rosatom Director General Aleksey Likhachev stressed the necessity for the IAEA to identify the attack's origins and submit an international political judgment. He denounced the Ukrainian military's strike on the facility as a new and more violent attack on nuclear power infrastructure. The cooling system will be examined for repair.
