Russia Kiev: No radiation after fire at Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant

Following a fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, no increased radiation has been measured, according to Kiev's ministry.

"With the means at our disposal, the monitoring systems, no emissions or releases of radioactive substances have yet been detected," Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said on television.

The fire on Sunday evening probably damaged a cooling tower and other facilities. Hrynchuk accused the Russian crew at Europe's largest nuclear plant of starting the fire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky had previously made similar comments.

The power plant management appointed by Russia and the administration for the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region, on the other hand, spoke of a Ukrainian drone attack. However, the Russian side also made it clear that there had only been a fire at a cooling tower on the power plant site, not at one of the six reactor units that had been shut down.

IAEA observers noticed smoke

Observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are stationed at the nuclear power plant. They reported that they had first noticed several explosions in the evening and then heavy smoke over the northern part of the power plant site. They were told that there had allegedly been a drone attack on one of the cooling towers.

"There were no reports that nuclear safety had been compromised," the IAEA wrote on X. The director general of the agency in Vienna, Rafael Grossi, demanded that his observers be given access to the site of the fire.

According to the Russian power plant management, this was granted today. The experts are only allowed to move around the plant with the permission of the Russians. Grossi also said that the damage to the cooling tower did not affect the safety of the six reactors that had been shut down.

However, he warned: "Any kind of fire on the site or in its vicinity means the risk of it spreading to safety-relevant facilities." The environmental protection organization Greenpeace also concluded that the fire did not threaten the safety of the reactors.

SDA