Kyiv: A fire has broken out in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant located in Zaporizhye, according to an announcement from plant employees and the mayor of the nearby town of Enerhodar. But, Ukrainian emergency services have confirmed a fire in the training building of the nuclear plant has been extinguished after a blaze burned for at least four hours throughout early Friday morning.
No casualties have so far been reported.
An update published to the State Emergency Services official Telegram account reads:
At 06:20 the fire in the training building of Zaporizhzhya NPP in Energodar was extinguished. There are no victims.”
“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov said on his Telegram channel just after 1.30 am local time, citing what he called a threat to world security.
Orlov recorded a short video message which has now been shared by multiple local Ukrainian media outlets, urging Russian troops to immediately stop shelling the plant.
The official earlier said Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the city’s outskirts and reported that a Russian military column was heading toward the nuclear plant. Loud shots and rocket fire were heard late Thursday.
According to a Telegram message posted by an employee at the plant, Russian troops fired at the nuclear facility.
Attention! The equipment of the Russian Federation is firing at the Zaporozhye NPP.
There is a real threat of nuclear danger at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. We demand a ceasefire from heavy equipment at the Zaporozhye NPP!
As of 2.30 am local time, the employee added that firefighters have been unable to reach the scene of the fire, claiming the outbreak was a result of shots by Russian troops.
Ukrainian news agencies UNIAN and Hromadske also report that a fire has started at the nuclear power plant.
It remains unclear exactly where the fire is located within the plant or the damage inflicted so far.
The city on the Dnieper River accounts for one-quarter of the country’s power generation.
The mayor of Enerhodar, a town located about 150km south-east of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, has said fighting at the plant has stopped, according to BBC Ukrainian, citing a local broadcaster.
The news comes after the plant reportedly sustained several hours of heavy shelling and a fire that broke out on the third, fourth and fifth floor of a building at the complex, according to Ukrainian emergency officials.
Ukrainian authorities on Friday morning said the facility was secured and “nuclear safety is now guaranteed”.
Earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Ukraine regulator told the agency that there was “no change reported in radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant site”.
The US also said their latest information showed no indication of elevated radiation levels at the plant. The US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said the reactors “are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down”.
Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, 100km north of Kyiv. Some analysts noted the Zaporizhzhye plant is of a different and safer type to Chernobyl, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.