Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Context:
- United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members expressed alarm at the prospect of a nuclear incident in Ukraine, at an emergency meeting on Friday, convened hours after a training building at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant caught fire, as Russians moved in on the facility and seized control of it.
- The International Atomic Energy (IAEA) chief told the Council that no reactors had been damaged.
Background:
- Zaporizhzhia NPP was built between 1984 and 1995 after it was decided in 1977 to construct it and in 1980, the stepwise construction of the plant power units was started.
- In the period from 1984 to 1987 four power units had been put into operation.
About the incident:
- A fire broke out in a training building outside Zaporizhzhia NPP during intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
- However, Ukraine emergency services say they have extinguished a fire at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant but it caused massive panic across the world. Kyiv blames Russian military shelling for the blaze.
- Russian forces have seized the largest nuclear power plant now.
- A video feed from the plant verified by news agencies showed heavy shelling and smoke rising near a building at the plant compound.
Significance:
- The power plant is of strategic importance to Russia because it is only about 200 km from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
- Zaporizhzhia is the largest of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, which together provide about half the country’s electricity.
Source: THE HINDU.
