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No radiation hazards for Poland

07.08.2022 12:45
There is no risk of radiation for Poland  in connection with a recent shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the country's Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) said on Saturday.
A Russian serviceman on guard in front of the first power unit of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, 01 May 2022. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station is under control of the Russian National Guard, the Ukrainian military that guarded the facility handed over their weapons and were released on 09 March acco
A Russian serviceman on guard in front of the first power unit of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, 01 May 2022. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station is under control of the Russian National Guard, the Ukrainian military that guarded the facility handed over their weapons and were released on 09 March accoPhoto: Sergei Ilnitsky PAP/EPA

“The PAA is monitoring radiation levels across Poland and has not recorded any alarming readouts by the measuring devices,” the agency wrote on its Twitter account. 

 Ukraine's state nuclear power company Energoatom said on Sunday that a worker was wounded when Russian forces again shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant, the biggest in Europe, on Saturday evening. It said on Telegram that the site of the  plant's dry storage facility, where 174 containers with spent nuclear fuel are stored in the open air, was hit by rocket attacks.

Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised grave concern about shelling at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as its military said Russian forces had attacked dozens of front-line towns.

"I'm extremely concerned by the shelling yesterday at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.

Grossi, who leads the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, urged all sides to exercise the "utmost restraint". Shells hit a high-voltage power line on Friday at the facility, prompting its operators to disconnect a reactor despite no radioactive leak being detected.

Russian troops were said to have placed explosives, missiles and military equipment at the Enerhodar power plant in order to shield themselves from Ukrainian attacks, the Polish Radio IAR news agency wrote on Friday.

The Russians took control of the plant in March after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into the pro-Western country on February 24.

This week the IAEA said that the situation at the nuclear power plant was "volatile".

(mo)

 Source: PAP, Reuters