Power lines repaired at Chernobyl nuclear plant
Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko confirmed Sunday that power lines have been repaired to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine, which was seized by Russian forces during a fierce battle last week.
"Our Ukrainian energy companies, risking their own health and lives, were able to avert the risk of a possible nuclear catastrophe that threatened the whole of Europe," Galushchenko said in a statement.
He said the restoration of electricity to the plant will enable its cooling systems of nuclear waste assemblies to work normally again, not from backup power.
In 1986, reactor No. 4 at the power plant, about 65 miles north of the capital Kyiv, exploded, spewing enormous amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere and causing more than 100,000 people in a 1,000-square-mile radius to evacuate.
Nuclear experts and Ukrainian government officials had expressed concern about potential health hazards from radioactive material spreading from the defunct plant amid the fighting.