The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine has been occupied by Russian forces
(Picture: AP)Heavy shelling and firefights around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant could lead Ukraine to shut it down to avoid nuclear catastrophe.
Ukraine says villages and communities near the plant were heavily shelled in the 24 hours to Thursday morning from “tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery” prompting mass evacuations from the conflict zone.
Zaporizhzhia has been disconnected from the Ukrainian electricity grid after shelling cut its external power lines. Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of shelling the plant and risking a nuclear disaster.
Shutting down the vast, six-reactor nuclear plant would pile further strain on Ukraine which is bracing for a winter of energy shortages as the war rages on in its east and south.
Russian forces took over the plant soon after their February 24 invasion of Ukraine but Ukrainian technicians still operate the power station.
Russia’s occupation of the plant has fuelled fears it might try to link up the facility to its own power grid, but the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company has said that is technically difficult.
“The option of switching off the station is being assessed, if conditions necessitating the station to be switched off arise,” Oleh Korikov, acting head of Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, told a news briefing.
“The continued deterioration of the situation, the prolonged lack of power supply from an external source of electricity will force us to deploy standby diesel generators, and it is extremely difficult to top up the diesel fuel supply during the war,” Korikov added.
“We could potentially reach a situation where the diesel runs out, which would cause an accident involving the damage of the active zones of the reactors, which would cause the expulsion of radioactive substances into the environment.”
It came as Ukrainian forces seized back 150 square miles of territory from Vladimir Putin’s army in a surprise counter-attack, military experts said on Thursday.
They had advanced at least 12 miles “deep into Russian-controlled territory” in the north eastern Kharkiv province, according to the Institute for The Study of War.
The Ukrainian troops are believed to have gone on the offensive after Mr Putin’s generals moved forces to the south of the country where they are being hit by a major counter-offensive.
