Ukraine’s state nuclear power operator, Energoatom, accused Russia on Monday of having bombed the area where the Pivdennonooukrainsk plant is located in the south of the country, once again expressing fear of a nuclear incident.
“On September 19, 2022, at 00:20 local time (22:20 Sunday in Lisbon), the Russian army bombed the industrial zone of the Pivdennonooukrainsk nuclear power plant,” Energoatom said on the Telegram social network.
“A powerful explosion occurred just 300 meters from the reactors,” the operator said.
“Currently, the plant’s three reactors are operating regularly,” assured the public operator, who added that the bombardment left no deaths or injuries.
The attack blew out a hundred windows in the plant building and caused a brief interruption of three power lines in the plant, according to the same source.
“Russia is endangering the whole world. We must stop this before it’s too late,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, which also posted black-and-white surveillance video showing a massive explosion.
Another Ukrainian nuclear plant, that of Zaporizhia, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russian troops, had already been the target of bombing in recent months, causing great concern in Western countries.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been reconnected to Ukraine’s power grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday, after being deprived of electricity, raising the risk of a nuclear accident.
Since it was disconnected from the country’s electricity grid, the plant, which has been bombed in recent weeks, of which the Russians and Ukrainians accuse each other, and whose reactors were closed, had only one source of energy – the thermal plant. to ensure the cooling of its facilities. The risk was that this power supply would also be cut off.
Located in southern Ukraine, on the banks of the Dnieper River, the plant came under the control of Russian forces in March and the bombing of its facilities raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
A team of experts from the IAEA, the UN’s specialized nuclear agency, managed to arrive in early September, traveling some 120 kilometers by road amid crossfire, and two of its elements stayed there to permanently monitor their safety conditions. operation.
Source: TSF
