NUKE PLANT BLAZE
Terrifying vid shows smoke billowing from Europe’s biggest nuke plant amid fears of disaster ‘as bad as six Chernobyls’
Watch the video above showing smoke pouring from the cooling tower
TERRIFYING footage has captured thick black smoke billowing from Europe's biggest nuclear power plant - reigniting fears of another Chernobyl-style disaster in Ukraine.
Smoke could be seen pouring out of one of the Ukrainian plant's cooling towers - with both Kyiv and Moscow blaming the other as the plant remains occupied by the Russians.
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It has been previously warned the facility - stuck in the middle of the warzone - could trigger a nuclear disaster equal to "six Chernobyls" amid Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion.
For now the plant is under control and the fire has been extinguished, but it remains one of the most dangerous flashpoints of war in Ukraine.
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was seized by Russia in a firefight in March 2022 after sending in tanks.
The world's eyes have since been on the facility - with international nuke experts regularly warning about the danger posed by the plant.
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Russian Telegram channels showed the new footage of the fire last night.
Ukraine accused the plant's Russian occupiers of setting fire to car tyres near the cooling tower, located about a kilometre from the power units.
Writing on X, former minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said while the Kremlin invaders blamed it on a Ukrainian drone, Kyiv-based national nuclear energy company Energoatom claimed it was caused by arson or negligence.
The blaze has now been stopped and radiation levels are back within normal limits, meaning Europe can breathe a sigh of relief.
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Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky previously warned a nuclear disaster at the site could be as big as "six Chernobyls".
Speaking in 2022 after the Russian occupation, he warned severe damage to the plant could "[stop] the story, the history of Ukraine, the history of Europe".
AFU soldiers plant a Ukrainian flag in the village of Guevo the Kursk region of Russia
The Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 - in which one of the Russian plant's reactors exploded - left nearly 100,000 miles of land uninhabitable, displacing 200,000 people.
Those exposed to radiation suffered health problems - including cancer, tumours and depression - for years after.
Local military chief Serhii Lysak said: "The fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been extinguished.
"The radiation level in the Nikopol district is normal. We are keeping the situation under control."
He added the Russians were continuing to send strikes into the region.
President Zelensky said Russia was using the plant to blackmail the world.
He said: "Currently, radiation levels are within norm.
"However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal."
"Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world."
Ukraine's energy agency Energoatom said the fire broke out at the technical water supply facility causing the cooling tower to catch fire.
They said: "The likely cause is the negligence of the Racist occupiers, or the deliberate arson of the cooling tower."
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) responded in a post on X, writing: "IAEA experts witnessed strong dark smoke coming from ZNPP’s northern area following multiple explosions heard in the evening.
"Team was told by ZNPP of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site.
"No impact has been reported for nuclear safety."
The cooling tower is located about a kilometre away from the power units.
Inspectors inside have previously warned that the site is spiralling towards catastrophe.
It comes as Ukraine could be trying to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant during its surprise invasion of the region.
Ukraine's troops have now spent six days inside the Russian homeland replacing flags, taking POWs, and capturing territory.
They've penetrated 30km deep, Russia's defence ministry said, leaving Putin "scared and seething" over the ongoing attacks.
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Russia is scrambling to build fortifications around the atomic facility which is 100km from the border with Ukraine.
Satellite images show the trenches to the south of Kurchatov, a town near where the power plant is located.
What happened at Chernobyl?
THE nuclear catastrophe in Chernobyl claimed 31 lives as well as leaving thousands of people and animals exposed to potentially fatal radiation.
When an alarm bellowed out at the nuclear plant on April 26, 1986, workers looked on in horror as the control panels signaled a major meltdown in the number four reactor.
The safety switches had been switched off in the early hours to test the turbine but the reactor overheated and generated a blast - the equivalent of 500 nuclear bombs.
The reactor's roof was blown off and a plume of radioactive material was blasted into the atmosphere.
As air was sucked into the shattered reactor, it ignited flammable carbon monoxide gas causing a fire which burned for nine days.
The catastrophe released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Soviet authorities waited 24 hours before evacuating the nearby town of Pripyat - giving the 50,000 residents just three hours to leave their homes.
After the accident traces of radioactive deposits were found in Belarus where poisonous rain damaged plants and caused animal mutations.
But the devastating impact was also felt in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, France and the UK.
An 18-mile radius known as the “Exclusion Zone” was set up around the reactor following the disaster.
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