A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this month. Credit… Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Ukraine’s military on Saturday reported fresh shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant complex in southern Ukraine, hours after the European Union joined the United States late on Friday in calling for an immediate a demilitarized zone around the plant.
International concern has grown as bombings at the plant raise the risk of igniting a fire or causing other damage that could spiral out of control and lead to a nuclear accident.
Ukraine has accused Russia of directing strikes there to cut off power supplies to other cities and to try to discredit the Ukrainian military in the eyes of the world. The Russians say Ukraine is doing the bombing.
In his late-night speech on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation at the nuclear power plant was also a threat to the rest of Europe. Every day that Russian forces occupy the plant and the region around it “increases the radiation threat to Europe so much that, even at the height of the confrontation during the Cold War, this did not happen “.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency accused Russia of using the occupied town of Vodyane, which is near the plant, as a launching pad to bomb the facility. They also accused Russia of planning a false flag propaganda event to make it appear that Ukrainians are responsible for the hostilities around the complex.
The intelligence agency said that, among other things, Russian forces were flying Ukrainian flags at positions where their artillery was located.
The claims could not be independently verified, but reflect the Ukrainian belief that Russia is using the plant as a form of nuclear blackmail aimed at scaring Ukrainians and their international allies about the consequences of any effort to recover the lands now occupied by Russia.
At the same time, Russian state media Ria Novosti reported that Ukraine had launched an artillery attack on the plant, firing at least nine shells that landed near the complex. The report quoted a local official of Russia’s employment administration. Could not be independently confirmed.
It was not immediately known what damage was caused by Saturday’s new bombing.
Both parties would suffer if a meltdown occurred at the plant, the largest in Europe, and radioactive material was released.
Although these plants are designed to withstand a range of risks, from an airplane crashing into the facility to natural disasters, no operating nuclear power plant has ever been in the middle of active combat, and this one is not be designed with the threat of cruise missiles in mind. in mind
According to officials, the concrete shell of the site’s six reactors provides strong protection, as was the case when Reactor No. 1 was struck in March. More worrying is the possibility of a power transformer being hit by shelling, increasing the risk of fire.
If a fire broke out in the power transformers and the power grid went offline, it could cause the plant’s cooling system to fail and lead to a catastrophic meltdown, said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear energy expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. , a private group in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He noted that the loss of coolant during the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011 had caused three reactors to suffer some degree of core meltdown.
If the cooling is interrupted, Dr. Lyman said, the nuclear fuel could become hot enough to melt in a matter of hours. Eventually, it could melt through the steel reactor vessel and even the outer containment structure, releasing radioactive material.