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Friday, March 4, 2022
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Europe|A fire breaks out at a nuclear plant during a Russian assault, Ukraine
says.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/world/europe/nuclear-plant-fire-zaporizhzhia-video.html
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

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LIVERussia-Ukraine War


A FIRE BREAKS OUT AT A NUCLEAR PLANT DURING A RUSSIAN ASSAULT, UKRAINE SAYS.

March 3, 2022, 8:34 p.m. ETMarch 3, 2022
March 3, 2022

Mike Ives, William J. Broad, Malachy Browne, Brenna Smith and Ang Li

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A fire broke out early Friday at a complex in southern Ukraine housing Europe’s
largest nuclear power plant after Russian troops fired on the area, and the
Russian military later took control of the site, Ukrainian officials said.

Security camera footage verified by The New York Times showed a building ablaze
inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex near a line of military vehicles. The
videos appeared to show people in the vehicles firing at buildings in the power
plant. Ukraine’s state emergency service later said the blaze went out after 6
a.m.

The fire did not affect essential equipment at the plant, the International
Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter, citing its communication with the
Ukrainian government.



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About an hour after dawn, Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory inspectorate said in a
statement that Russian military forces were now occupying the complex. It said
that all of the site’s power units remained intact and that no changes in
radiation levels had been observed.




The fire broke out after a Russian attack on a training building outside the
perimeter of the plant, according to a statement by Ukraine’s state emergency
service. A spokesman for the nuclear plant, Andriy Tuz, was quoted by The
Associated Press as telling Ukrainian television that shells had set fire to one
of the plant’s six reactors that was under renovation and not operating.

Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate later said in its statement that one unit of the
six units was operating, another was in “outage,” two were being cooled down,
and two others had been disconnected from the grid.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had accused the Russian military of
deliberately attacking the complex and said an explosion there would have been
“the end for everybody, the end of Europe.”

“Only immediate actions by Europe could stop the Russian army,” he added.

President Biden spoke with Mr. Zelensky about the fire and joined him in urging
Russia to “cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and
emergency responders to access the site,” the White House said. Local reports
later said that emergency crews had gained access.



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Mr. Biden’s energy secretary, Jennifer M. Granholm, said on Twitter that the
United States had not detected elevated radiation readings in the area, echoing
an earlier assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency. “The plant’s
reactors are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being
safely shut down,” she said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said he would seek an emergency meeting
of the United Nations Security Council about the blaze at the complex, according
to his office.


RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: KEY THINGS TO KNOW

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Card 1 of 4

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson, the first city
to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it
allows the Russians to control more of Ukraine’s southern coastline and to push
west toward the city of Odessa.

Russia’s advance. Russian troops encircled the strategic port city of Mariupol.
A military convoy that has come within 20 miles of Kyiv appeared to have stalled
in place, stymied by what British officials described as “staunch Ukrainian
resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion.”

The conflict and Beijing 2022. A Western intelligence report said that China
told Russian officials not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Beijing
Olympics, indicating it had some knowledge about Russia’s intentions.
Separately, in a quick reversal, the organizers of the Paralympic Winter Games
barred athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing.

A symbolic vote. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the support of 141 countries out
of 193. The vote, which is not legally binding, reflected Russia’s growing
isolation on the international stage.

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Before the fire was reported by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, the
director general for the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement
that “a large number of Russian tanks and infantry” had entered Enerhodar, a
town next to the plant. The director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that
troops were “moving directly” toward the reactor site.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex, on the Dnieper River roughly a hundred miles
north of Crimea, is the largest in Europe. According to the International Atomic
Energy Agency, its six reactors produce a total of 6,000 megawatts of electric
power.

In comparison, the Chernobyl plant in northern Ukraine produced 3,800 megawatts
— about a third less. (A megawatt, one million watts, is enough power to light
10,000 hundred-watt bulbs.) The four reactors of the Chernobyl complex were shut
down after one suffered a catastrophic fire and meltdown in 1986.

The reactors’ cores are full of highly radioactive fuel. But an additional
danger at the Zaporizhzhia site is the many acres of open pools of water behind
the complex where spent fuel rods have been cooled for years. Experts fear that
errant shells or missiles that hit such sites could set off radiological
disasters.

For days, social media reports have detailed how the residents of Enerhodar set
up a giant barrier of tires, vehicles and metal barricades to try to block a
Russian advance into the city and the reactor site. Christoph Koettl, a visual
investigator for The New York Times, noted on Twitter that the barricades were
so large that they could be seen from outer space by orbiting satellites.

Starting this past Sunday, three days into the invasion, Ukraine’s nuclear
regulator began reporting an unusual rate of disconnection: Six of the nation’s
15 reactors were offline. On Tuesday, the Zaporizhzhia facility was the site
with the most reactors offline.

John Yoon, Marc Santora and Nathan Willis contributed reporting.






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