The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine did not suffer any serious damage in the attack, Andrey Toze, a spokesman for the station, told CNN on Friday, adding that when the firefighters initially arrived, they were blocked by Russian forces.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the Ukrainian regulator had informed the organization that there had been no change in reported radiation levels and that the fire had not affected “essential” equipment. The White House said it was monitoring the situation.
Attention has focused on the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities as Russia’s invasion of the country intensifies. The possibility of the fire causing damage to the nuclear plant alarmed experts, though they cautioned that it was too early to gauge the full impact.
“The facts are unfolding” but “not all fires at the power plant have serious consequences,” Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, told Anderson Cooper early Friday.
Ukrainian officials have called on Russian forces to stop fighting after reports that the factory was first attacked Friday morning local time
According to a statement issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that a large number of Russian tanks and infantry “penetrated the barrier” to the town of Enerhodar, a few kilometers from the Zaporizhzhya power plant.
The agency was monitoring the situation closely, and Grossi spoke with Ukraine’s prime minister and the country’s nuclear energy regulator about the fire, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter early Friday.
Matthew Boone, Professor of Energy Practice, National Security, and Foreign Policy for James R. The dangers to the Ukrainian people are bullets, bombs and missiles, not radiation.”
The Zaporizhzhya plant contains six of the country’s 15 nuclear power reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the agency is in “continuous contact” with its Ukrainian counterparts to ensure the safety of facilities in Ukraine.
“What makes it unprecedented is that this is the first time in post-World War II history that we have a full military operation amid … a large number of nuclear facilities, including nuclear reactors,” Grossi said.
“There is always a risk of military activity that may affect the sites, or that there will be some interruption or some interruption in the normal operation of any of these facilities, which may result in a problem or accident,” he said.
Zaporizhia is located about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of the city of Donetsk within one of the two pro-Moscow regions recognized as an independent country last month by Russia.
On Thursday, member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution calling on Russia to halt actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine, diplomats said.
The resolution, led by Canada and Poland, and with the support of 26 other countries, denounced “the aggressive activity of Russia and its attacks on nuclear sites in Ukraine, and the seizure and control of nuclear facilities.” Kitsell said.
The Czech Foreign Ministry said only Russia and China voted against the resolution.
Russia told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday that its forces had taken control of the area around the Zaporizhia plant, according to a message posted on the agency’s website.
The Russian letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that the plant’s workers continue their “work to provide nuclear safety and radiation control in the normal mode of operation. Radiation levels remain normal.”
On the first day of the invasion, Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, according to Ukrainian officials.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is located 325 miles (520 kilometers) southeast of Chernobyl, where a nuclear power reactor exploded when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in 1986 – causing a disaster that directly or indirectly affected 9 million people, due to the radioactive material released in the atmosphere.
Ukraine has told the International Atomic Energy Agency that employees who have been detained at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) since Russian military forces took control of the site a week ago are facing “psychological stress and moral exhaustion,” he said. Statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday.
In a joint appeal to International Nuclear Control, the Ukrainian government, the regulatory authority and the national operator said employees at the facility should be allowed to rest and rotate so that their critical work can be carried out safely and securely.
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