(Bloomberg) — Normal radiation levels were reported at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine following a fire and explosions, the international nuclear regulator said.
Thick, dark smoke was visible above one of the power plant’s cooling towers, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said on its website on Monday. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the incident.
Although there is no danger of elevated radiation levels in the area, a fire on the site poses a risk as it could spread to other parts and endanger safety, the IAEA said. It called for immediate access to the cooling tower to assess any damage.
“These reckless attacks endanger the nuclear safety of the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “They must stop now.”
Russia seized the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, in March 2022, shortly after it launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Since then, the plant has been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid. The IAEA has called on Russia to return the plant to Ukraine, citing concerns about deteriorating safety.
The fire broke out on Sunday evening in the power plant’s water supply system, Energoatom, which operates Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, said on Monday. As a result, one of the cooling towers, which are located about a kilometer away from the power plants, caught fire and some technical equipment was damaged, it said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops had set fire to the site and demanded that the facility be returned to Kyiv’s control.
Russia, in turn, blamed a Ukrainian drone attack for the incident, according to a statement on the Telegram channel of its country’s IAEA mission.
(Updated with comment on Ukraine’s Energoatom in sixth paragraph. An earlier version was corrected to clarify in the headline that the plant is occupied by Russia.)
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