"Nuclear accident" in southeast Ukraine
December 3, 2014
A statement from Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Wednesday said a nuclear accident had taken place in the country's southeast.
Ukraine's energy minister said a short circuit led to a drop in production energy production, and insisted it posed no danger.
"The accident happened in the third block of the Zaporozhiya nuclear power plant in the power output section. This is in no way associated with the reactor, Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a briefing.
"There is no threat ... there are no problems with the reactors." He added the accident affected the power output system "in no way."
He said the plant would be running at full strength on December 5.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday that it was informed of the short circuit by Ukrainian authorities that that the nuclear power plant's reactor remained safely shut down.
Under an international convention, a country should notify the IAEA about a nuclear accident that could affect other nations. The convention was adopted after the 1986 Chernobyl accident in what was then Soviet Ukraine.
Nuclear power accounts for 44 percent of Ukraine's power production, according to the IAEA.
jr/ksb (Reuters, AFP, AP)