KYIV, Ukraine — A fire caused by renewed shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant led to its disconnection from the national power grid Monday, Ukrainian officials said, raising fears that despite the presence of U.N. inspectors, conditions at the Russian-occupied facility could deteriorate quickly and threaten a catastrophe.
The fire forced the staff to sever the plant’s last connection to a reserve line that was providing its only source of outside power, once again placing critical cooling systems at risk of relying solely on emergency backup power, Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said Monday.
