4:45 am: The situation is under control at the nuclear power plant
After several tense hours, the situation is reassuring at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Russian troops, who fired on the building and caused a fire in an administrative building near an (inactive) reactor, finally let Ukrainian firefighters access the site at 5:20 a.m. (4:20 a.m. Paris time), the rescuers announced. .
A little earlier, a head of the military administration of the Zaporozhye region had indicated that security was “guaranteed”: “The director of the plant indicated that nuclear security is now guaranteed. According to plant officials, a building for training and a laboratory are affected by a fire.
Fighting broke out shortly following midnight (Paris time). On a live feed from a plant camera, what appeared to be flares were seen falling near the plant and then smoke clearing. But it seems that it was Russian artillery fire that hit the administrative building.
The plant, which is the most powerful in Europe, supplies 20% of Ukraine’s electricity. Authorities said the reactor near the fire was inactive. However, it contains nuclear fuel, and a leak was therefore possible. On the other hand, a meltdown of the reactor core, as in Chernobyl, was unlikely.
