Ukraine nuclear plant back online, inspection planned
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, occupied by Kremlin troops, came back online on Friday, the state operator said, after Kyiv earlier claimed it was cut from the national power grid by Russian shelling. The plant – Europe's largest nuclear facility – was severed on Thursday from Ukraine's power network for the first time in its four-decade history due to "actions of the invaders", according to Energoatom. The operator said that as of 2:04 pm local time (7:04pm in Hong Kong) the plant "is connected to the grid and produces electricity for the needs of Ukraine" once again. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country's nuclear experts had managed to protect the plant "from the worst case scenario which is constantly being provoked by Russian forces." But he added: "I want to underline that the situation remains very risky and dangerous." The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been cause for mounting concern ever since Russian troops seized it in early March. In recent weeks, Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for rocket strikes around the facility in the southern Ukrainian city of Energodar. Energoatom said the outage was caused by ash pit fires at an adjacent thermal power plant, which damaged a line connecting the only two of the plant's six reactors in operation. International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Thursday he wants to visit the site within days, and warned of potential disaster. Ukraine's energy minister adviser Lana Zerkal said an IAEA inspection "is planned for the next week". Kyiv suspects Moscow intends to divert power from the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russian troops in 2014. On Thursday, the United States warned against any such move. "The electricity that it produces rightly belongs to Ukraine," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, saying attempts to redirect power to occupied areas were "unacceptable". (AFP)