Fears over the possibility of a radioactive leak at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant continued on Saturday as both sides traded blame for nearby bombings. Ukraine said Russian forces fired at areas just across the river from the plant, and Russia claimed Ukrainian shells hit a building where nuclear fuel is stored. Authorities distributed iodine tablets to residents living near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in case of exposure to radiation, which can cause health problems. Much of the concern centers on the cooling systems for the plant’s nuclear reactors. The systems require power to operate, and the plant was temporarily shut down Thursday because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line. A failure of the cooling system could cause a nuclear meltdown. Russian forces seized the nuclear plant complex early in the 6-month war, but local Ukrainian workers have kept it running. The governments of Ukraine and Russia have repeatedly accused the other of bombing the compound and nearby areas, raising fears of a potential disaster. Intermittent shelling has destroyed the power plant’s infrastructure, Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom said on Saturday. “There are risks of hydrogen leakage and release of radioactive substances and the risk of fire is high,” it said. The governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said on Saturday that Russian Grad missiles and artillery shells hit the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, each located 10 kilometers (6 miles) across the Dnieper River from the plant. . However, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukrainian forces had fired at the plant from Marchanets. Last day, 17 Ukrainian shells hit the plant, with four hitting the roof of a building that stores nuclear fuel, he said. Neither account could be immediately verified. The UN atomic energy agency tried to broker an agreement to send a team to inspect and help secure the plant. Officials said preparations for the visit were underway, but it remained unclear when it might take place. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was necessary for representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency to reach the plant as soon as possible and help keep it “under permanent Ukrainian control.” “The situation remains precarious and dangerous,” Zelensky said Friday in his nightly speech. “Any repeat of (Thursday’s) events, that is, any disconnection of the plant from the grid or any actions by Russia that could cause the reactors to shut down, would again put the plant one step away from disaster.” Ukraine has claimed that Russia is using the power plant as a shield by storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it. Moscow, for its part, accuses Ukraine of firing at the nuclear complex. The dispute over the plant led Russia late on Friday to block agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the UN treaty seen as the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament. The draft document of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference criticized Russia’s acquisition of the Zaporizhzhia plant. The deputy head of the Russian delegation said the conference had become a “political hostage” for countries that were trying “to come clean with Russia by raising issues not directly related to the treaty.” Elsewhere in Ukraine, one person was killed and another wounded by Russian fire in the Mykolayiv region, local government officials said. The city of Mykolaiv is an important Black Sea port and shipbuilding center. The governor of eastern Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, said on Saturday that two people were killed by Russian fire in the city of Bakhmut, a key target for Russian and separatist forces seeking to take control of parts of the region they do not already hold. . The British government said on Saturday it had provided Ukraine with underwater drones and was training sailors to use them to clear mines off the ravaged country’s coast. Mines laid in the Black Sea during the war have hampered seaborne exports of Ukrainian grain to world markets, although an agreement reached in July allowed shipments to resume along a single corridor. More than 1 million metric tons of Ukrainian food have been shipped since early August under the Black Sea grain deal, the United Nations said Saturday. The flow of grain under the deal lowered prices, reduced the risk of food insecurity and allowed the World Food Program to restart wheat purchases from Ukraine for drought-stricken countries such as Ethiopia and Yemen.
