MELITOPOL, August 10. /TASS/. The damage of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) in Ukrainian shelling will result in radioactive pollution of an unprecedented scale, a local administration official has told TASS.
"Nationalists have so far stopped short of striking the reactors. They however shelled spent nuclear fuel repositories in the immediate vicinity from Power Unit 6," Head of Energodar Military-Civilian Administration Alexander Volga said. "The authorities of Energodar are extremely alarmed by those actions, because damage to the nuclear station’s infrastructure would have consequences of an unprecedented scope. The global disaster that may occur will by far surpass the aftermath of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters in terms of radioactive pollution."
The Kiev government forces have repeatedly launched strikes targeting the territory of the Zaporozhye NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with six operating reactors. On August 7, the Ukrainian military shelled the plant, targeting, in particular, the spent nuclear fuel repository. The military-civilian administration of Energodar where the nuclear power station is located, said that the Kiev regime had fired a 220mm Uragan rocket with a cluster warhead. Its striking elements damaged the station’s administrative buildings and the repository’s adjacent territory. Prior to that, the Ukrainian military bombarded the Zaporozhye NPP on August 5 and 6.
In March 2022, the Zaporozhye NPP was placed under the Russian army’s control. Currently, the NPP operates at 70% capacity as the area of the Zaporozhye Region liberated from the Ukrainian army has a surplus of electricity power. There are plans to direct part of electricity generated at the Zaporozhye NPP to Crimea.