Africa
INTERNATIONAL regulators need to make their way to the besieged Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine with all haste, officials in Kiev are urging, as fears remain elevated because of a Russian occupation there.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko posted overnight on Facebook that both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations needed to send experts to assess the situation.
On Thursday, a local blackout knocked out power supplies to the plant, increasing the risk of an emergency.
Ukraine blames the outage on Russian shelling.
When it was cut off from Ukraine’s power supply, it only remained up and running due to an emergency connection.
Both reactor blocks had to be shut down in an emergency fashion.
Power had since been restored, but the blocks remained deactivated.
Russian troops had occupied the plant, part of Russia’s six-month-old invasion.
Galushchenko wrote on Facebook that they needed to evacuate the area.
But Russian forces blamed the problems on Ukrainian shelling and say that they had already spun the reactors back up. It was impossible to verify statements from either side.
IAEA director Rafael Grossi had said he was ready to visit Zaporizhzhya with a team of experts.
However, no agreement had been able to be reached on how to get such a team to the plant. (dpa/NAN)
A.I
Tags: International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant
