Zaporizhzhia Narrowly Avoids Nuclear Disaster

The world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster after a Russian-controlled nuclear plant was completely disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned.

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the biggest nuclear power station in Europe. Credit: Ralf1969, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster after a Russian-controlled nuclear plant was completely disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was back on the grid and supplying electricity, officials said, a day after it was disconnected from the national power grid for the first time in its 40-year history. Zelenskyy said in a late-night video address that after the last working line connecting it to Ukraine’s power grid was damaged by Russian shelling, it was only the plant’s safety systems kicking in with backup power that had averted catastrophe.

“The world must understand what a threat this is: if the diesel generators hadn’t turned on, if the automation and our staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would now be forced to overcome the consequences of the radiation accident,” he said. “Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” Zelenskyy added.

Russia blamed Ukraine for the incident. The country’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, said the plant itself was being safely powered through a repaired line from the power grid. There were no issues with the plant’s machinery or safety systems, it said.

It later announced that the plant was reconnected to Ukraine’s power grid and was producing electricity to meet the country’s needs. The agency hailed the plant’s staff as heroes who “tirelessly and firmly hold the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine and the whole of Europe on their shoulders.”

But authorities nonetheless began distributing iodine tablets to residents near the plant Friday in case of a radiation leak, amid mounting fears that the fighting around the complex could trigger a catastrophe, the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration confirmed to international media.

Russian-installed officials in the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region sought to play down the gravity of the situation. “There was just an emergency situation” that was handled by the plant’s safety systems, Alexander Volga, a Russian-installed official in the nearby town of Enerhodar, told the state news agency.

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