The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, considered that Russia had committed a “serious breach of nuclear security” on Thursday, by causing a power outage at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant following its strike.
The power outage necessitated the use of diesel emergency generators to cool the station for several hours before power supply was restored.
Borrell said at a European meeting in Stockholm that the outage “exacerbated the risks of a nuclear accident in the last hours,” and added, “It is a serious violation of nuclear security caused by Russia.”
Borrell stressed that “Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe. Russia endangers the security of the entire European continent, including Russia.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
At noon, the electric current was restored at the Ukrainian nuclear plant, which is controlled by Russian forces, and which had suffered an electrical outage on Thursday morning as a result of a Russian strike, according to what the company operating the electricity sector in Ukraine announced.
The 20 emergency generators, whose stock allows them to operate for 15 days, have been put into operation.
And had it not been for the electricity produced by these generators, the high temperature of the reactor fuel would have quickly led to a nuclear accident similar to what happened in Fukushima in Japan in 2011.
In addition to the power outage at the station, the intensive Russian strikes, the heaviest in weeks, killed at least six people on Thursday.
