KIEV (AFP/Al Jazeera) – There is a risk of a radioactive leak at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant currently occupied by Russian troops, the state energy operator said Saturday.
Energoatom said Moscow’s troops had “repeatedly shelled” the plant site over the past day.
“As a result of periodic shelling, the infrastructure of the station has been damaged, there are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the fire hazard is high,” the nuclear agency said on Telegram.
The agency said that as of midday on Saturday (09:00 GMT) the plant “operates with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards”.
Authorities began distributing iodine tablets on Friday to residents who live near the plant in case of a radiation leak.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had shelled the grounds of the nuclear facility in the last 24 hours.
“A total of 17 shells were fired, four of which hit the roof of Special Building No. 1, where 168 assemblies of U.S. Westinghouse nuclear fuel are stored,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said 10 shells exploded near a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and three more near a building that houses fresh nuclear fuel storage.
It said the radiation situation at the plant remained normal.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield report.
Recent satellite images from Planet Labs showed fires burning around the Zaporizhzhia complex over the last several days.
Kyiv and Moscow have for months traded accusations over shelling in the vicinity of the complex, located in the city of Enerhodar.
Grad rockets and artillery shells hit the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each about 10 kilometers (six miles) and across the Dnieper river from the Zaporizhzhia plant, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Zaporizhzhia facility was seized by Russian troops in the opening weeks of conflict in Ukraine in February and the site has remained on the front line of fighting ever since.
Ukrainian staff continue to operate the plant and in recent weeks both sides have traded blame for shelling near the plant.
On Thursday, the power plant was cut off from Ukraine’s national electricity grid for the first time in its four-decade history.