Enerhodar mayor comments on fire at Zaporizhzhia NPP set by Russians
Photo: Russian provocations at the ZNPP (illustrative photo GettyImages)
The fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which occurred on the evening of August 11, is a Russian provocation. In particular, another alleged attempt to discredit the Ukrainian Defense Forces, according to the mayor of Enerhodar Dmytro Orlov.
According to the mayor, the cooling towers in which the fire occurred were used in the technological process for additional cooling of raw water, which is in the cooling reservoir for the reactors of the nuclear power plant. They haven't worked in quite some time. Usually, these structures work in the summer during the operation of a fairly significant number of power units.
"Now, since all the blocks are in a cold state, they do not work at all, there is nothing to burn there at all. If the Russian occupiers did not put something there that could burn. There are only metal structures and reinforced concrete. Therefore, physically there was nothing to burn," he says.
Orlov does not rule out that in this way, "the Russian occupiers are once again trying to blame the Ukrainian military for the attacks on the nuclear power plant."
"There is a fairly significant distance to operating power units, to nuclear installations - about a kilometer to the nearest power unit. Therefore, from the point of view of any nuclear radiation hazards, there are none. The radiation fund is now normal, as it was until this moment," he informs.
Fire at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
On August 11, residents of Nikopol noticed a fire in one of the cooling towers of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the occupied shore of the former Kakhovka reservoir.
After that, the head of the Nikopol district military administration, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said that, according to unofficial information from sources from the opposite bank, the Russians set fire to automobile tires in large numbers in the structures. He emphasized that the ZNPP was working normally.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to this, saying that the Russian occupiers started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. According to the head of state, the radiation indicators are currently normal, but the situation at the ZNPP cannot be normal while it is illegally controlled by Russian terrorists.
In turn, the IAEA said that its experts witnessed heavy dark smoke in the northern part of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which appeared after numerous explosions.
Energoatom energy company believes the causes of the fire are considered to be the negligence of the Russian occupants or deliberate arson. Exceeding the control levels for emissions and discharges of radioactive substances were not recorded.
Later, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Serhii Lysak, reported that the fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant had stopped.
