According to the data, on August 11 at 20:20 and 20:32, one of the station’s two cooling towers was attacked twice by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
As a result, a fire broke out, which burned down the internal structures. At 23:30, the main fire was extinguished by the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, RIA Novosti reports in a Rosatom message.
“However, serious damage was caused to the internal structures of the cooling tower,” the state corporation said, adding that experts will assess the threat of collapse of the structure when the situation allows.
The attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was carried out against the cooling equipment of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which makes it possible to consider this attack as an act of nuclear terrorism, Rosatom stressed.
Earlier, the head of communications at the Zaporizhia NPP, Evgenia Yashina, said that for the first time during the shelling of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the infrastructure of the plant was so severely damaged. According to her, the physical integrity of the Zaporizhia NPP has been violated. This is an unprecedented threat to nuclear security, Yashina stressed.
IAEA experts said they heard sounds of explosions and saw thick smoke at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The agency’s report also notes that the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant notified it about a drone attack on the plant’s cooling systems. However, the IAEA did not receive any data on the consequences of the attack for nuclear safety.
