Kiev, Ukraine: Addressing the first session of Verkhova Rada, Ukraine PM Arseny Yatsenyuk confirmed nuclear plant accident in southeastern Ukraine but maintained that things are under control.
Russian news agency Interfax already reported that problem took place in bloc No 3 of reactor that is producing 1,000-megawatt electricity. According to Russian media, accident took place on last Friday but information were not shared and only American experts were informed about the accident while demanding US expert help to deal with this reactor down output.
Ukraine Prime Minister while addressing first session of newly elected parliament informed the parliament about the event and directed new energy minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn to deal with the issue on urgent bases and share information with the parliament of and the media thereafter.
The accident left several dozen towns and villages without electricity, Russian media reported, citing local officials.
Demchyshyn said that the reactor would be restarted December 5.
Plant official website http://www.npp.zp.ua mentioned that four more reactors at the plant remain operational and there was no need to be panic by people of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was contacted by Reuters news agency and IAEA said that it had no comment to make on the Zaporoshskaya accident so far. However it was not clear that weather Ukraine government had informed IAEA about accident after Friday or not because an international convention, adopted after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, obliges countries to notify the IAEA of any nuclear accident that can affect other countries.
