Ukraine on Monday accused the Russian military of once again cutting off electricity at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located north of kyiv and the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, which is now under Russian control.
The Ukrainian authorities indicated the day before that they had restored the electrical supply of the old plant, which still needs energy to guarantee the safety of the fuel elements stored there.
“But before power was fully restored, occupation forces damaged the line feeding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” the facility’s Ukrainian operator, Ukrenergo, said on Facebook on Monday.
Ukrenergo claims that his technicians had repaired a power line supplying Chernobyl and the city of Slavutitch. But this line was damaged again and more employees will have to return to the site to repair it.
“A stable power supply will prevent a repeat of the Chernobyl catastrophe,” Ukrenergo said.
Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl power plant exploded in 1986, causing the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history. It is covered by a double sarcophagus, one built by the Soviets, now damaged, and another, more modern, inaugurated in 2019.
