Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that the world narrowly escaped a radioactive accident at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, after the power of the plant’s two still-operating reactors was cut off.
Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company Energoatom said fires in ash pits at a coal plant near the complex had disconnected reactors from the power grid. The company blamed Russian “invaders” for the disconnection.
Confirming earlier comments made to Reuters by an energy industry official, Zelensky said backup diesel generators were immediately activated to provide a continuous power supply. Electricity is used in the cooling and security systems of the nuclear power plant.
“If the diesel generators didn’t work… if our station staff hadn’t reacted after the power outage, we would have had to deal with the consequences of a radioactive accident anyway,” he said.
“Russia has brought Ukraine and all Europeans one step closer to radioactive disaster.”
Zelensky also urged the International Atomic Energy Agency and other world organizations to move much more quickly for Russian troops to exit the site of the plant, the largest in Europe.
source: Noticias
