The latest attacks have caused damage to infrastructure and there is a risk of fire, says the operator of the nuclear power plants
Clashes around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and controlled by Russia since the beginning of March, continue, raising fears of a catastrophe “ten times” greater than the one at Chernobyl in 1986, as the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitro Kuleba warned two weeks ago. This Saturday, the operator of the nuclear power plants in the invaded country, Energoatom, assured that the latest attacks created the risk of “atomizing radioactive materials”.
The entity explained that, after the bombings in recent days, “the infrastructure of the station has been damaged, there is a risk of hydrogen spraying and splashing of radioactive materials, and the risk of fire is high.” In fact, the factory was in operation until noon at the risk of “violating radiation and fire safety standards,” Energoatom warned in its Telegram account.
Meanwhile, the parties involved in the armed conflict blame each other for the clashes. The Russian Defense Ministry denounced that Ukrainian forces bombed the compound with a total of “seventeen projectiles” in the past 24 hours and accused Kiev of “nuclear terrorism”. Despite this, the radiation levels remain “normal”. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said there were no radioactive leaks at the plant and a military unit was deployed nearby to protect the entire perimeter.
The plant was disconnected from the grid on Thursday “for the first time in its history” due to Russian “terrorist attacks” that started fires in the area that supplies electricity to nuclear reactors. The interruption lasted only one day.
Energoatom, for its part, accused Russian forces on Saturday of pressuring factory workers to hide information from experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to the operator of the nuclear power plants, Moscow is insisting on hiding evidence that crimes are being committed and that the factory functions as a military base, according to a statement published on the social network.
In a climate of mounting tension, the IAEA will visit the facilities “next week,” announced Lana Zerkal, adviser to Ukraine’s energy minister, who was skeptical of the mission’s success. And it is that, despite the agreement reached with the Kremlin to conduct this inspection, the Russians “artificially create all the conditions” so that the entity belonging to the UN “cannot visit the factory”.
Source: La Verdad
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