Fire at Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine Puts Experts on Edge

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine caught fire on Sunday and Moscow and Kyiv are blaming each other.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared news of the fire in a post on X above a dramatic video that appeared to show smoke pouring out of a cooling tower. “We have recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Zelenskyy, noting that radiation levels were normal.

Enerhodar. We have recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the… pic.twitter.com/TQUi3BJg4J

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 11, 2024

On Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky—the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia—blamed the fire on a Ukrainian UAV. “This evening, as the result of an incendiary drone strike, one of the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant ignited,” he said. “The Ukrainian regime, supported by NATO, is systematically shelling the entire north of the [region] with UAVS, and [artillery].”

Balitsky said the fire had been contained and, in a follow-up post, said that radiation levels were normal. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it was monitoring the situation and that there is no immediate impact on nuclear safety. It also said it had requested an immediate inspection of the plant.

“These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the IAEA, said in a statement.

The world has been watching the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant closely for years. Russia took control of the power plant in the early days of its official ground invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Black and white CCTV cameras live-streamed the fighting to the world. Fires broke out then, too, but were quickly contained.

The image of a cooling tower on fire in Ukraine makes everyone nervous for good reason. The Chernobyl disaster dumped lots of radiation into the world’s air and gave the world a worst-case view of what a nuclear meltdown would look like. But nuclear power plant tech has changed a lot since the days of Chernobyl, and it’s unlikely that any of the reactors at Zaporizhzhia would meltdown as dramatically.

But fighting around nuclear power plants is still, y’know, bad. And it might soon happen at another one. The Zaporizhzhia fire comes as Ukraine’s ground invasion of the Kursk region of Russia edges near the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. The Kursk plant is smaller than the one at Zaporizhzhia, but there are always risks when fighting near nuclear material.

“At this juncture, I would like to appeal to all sides to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences,” the IAEA’s Grossi said.