Nuclear accident narrowly avoided after power cut at plant, Zelensky claims

 

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The world has narrowly avoided a nuclear accident, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky says after power was briefly cut to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine "at least twice lost connection" to the national electricity grid on Thursday (local time) "but is currently up again", the UN's International Atomic Agency says.

“Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” Zelensky said.

Safety systems at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine were activated, the RIA news agency reported, after power cuts were reported across swaths of Russian-controlled territory.

Outages were reported in parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, while Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine shelled the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility.

 Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant  was disconnected from the national power supply, the state energy operator has said.