- Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant came under Russian control early in the war
- However, the six-reactor plant itself is still being operated by Ukrainian staff
- The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut on Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity
- Alarms have been repeatedly raised about nearby shelling that could damage it
- Officials fear a disaster at the plant, which could be like a second Chernobyl
Europe's largest nuclear power plant, caught in the Ukraine-Russia war, is operating in emergency mode with elevated risk, Ukraine's state nuclear energy operator said.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) came under the control of Russian forces early in the war, but is being operated by Ukrainian staff.
The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling, raising fears of a second Chernobyl disaster. Russia and Ukraine blame on each other's forces.
The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut on Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity.
It is instead receiving power for its own safety systems from the only one of the six reactors that remains operational.
Energoatom, the state nuclear operator, said on Friday that repairs to the outside lines are impossible because of the shelling and that operating in the so-called 'island' carries 'the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards'.
'Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalise the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
Only then will the world be able to exhale,' Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, said on Friday on Ukrainian TV.
Meanwhile, a draft resolution that diplomats say Poland and Canada have prepared ahead of next week's meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors calls on Russia to cease all actions at Ukraine's nuclear facilities, the text shows.
The draft being circulated among the 35 countries on the Board of Governors, the International Atomic Energy Agency's top decision-making body, is a follow-up to a resolution that was passed by an emergency board meeting in March and that only Russia and China opposed.
As in March, diplomats said the aim was to show Russia is isolated diplomatically and to pressure it to end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, where the IAEA says the occupation and shelling from the war pose the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident.
The draft text seen by Reuters says the board 'deplores the Russian Federation's persistent violent actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including the ongoing presence of Russian forces and Rosatom personnel at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant', using the spelling of the plant's name favoured by the IAEA and referring to the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom.