Nuclear Plant Offline After Russian Shelling, Kyiv Says

KYIV, Ukraine — Europe’s largest nuclear plant was knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid Monday after its last transmission line was disconnected as a result of a fire caused by Russian shelling, the facility’s operator and the U.N. atomic watchdog said.The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was informed Monday by Ukrainian authorities that the reserve line “was deliberately disconnected in order to extinguish a fire.”“The line itself is not damaged, and it will be reconnected once the fire is extinguished,” the energy agency said.In the meantime, the plant’s only remaining operational reactor would “generate the power the plant needs for its safety and other functions,” the agency said.The incident fueled fears of a potential nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia, which is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world. Experts say its reactors are designed to protect against natural disasters and incidents such as aircraft crashes, but leaders around the world have appealed for it to be spared in the fighting because of the huge risk of a catastrophe.Plant operator Energoatom said in a statement that Russian forces have kept up “intensive shelling” of the area around Zaporizhzhia in recent days despite the warnings.The energy agency, which still has two experts at the plant after a perilous inspection last week that required six inspectors to travel through the fighting, said last Saturday that the plant had lost its last main line to the grid, but was still sending power to the grid through a reserve line.The developments at Zaporizhzhia came on the eve of a report to the U.N. Security Council by the energy agency inspectors about what they found on their visit.Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations about endangering the plant, which the Kremlin’s forces have held since early March. The plant’s Ukrainian staff continue to operate it.The Russian military had earlier Monday accused Ukrainian forces of staging “provocations” at the plant, which lies within a Russian-installed administrative area.Russia’s Defense ministry claimed that Kyiv’s forces on Sunday targeted the territory of the plant with a drone, which it said Russian troops were able to shoot down.The ministry said Ukrainian troops also shelled the adjacent city of Enerhodar twice overnight.The Ukrainian energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said on Facebook on Monday that fighting around the power station made it impossible to repair damaged power lines, putting the world “once again on the brink of a nuclear disaster.”

Nuclear Plant Offline After Russian Shelling, Kyiv Says

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