FILE PHOTO: An aerial view from a plane shows a New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during a tour to the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine April 3, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
(Reuters) -Russian air strikes have cut power to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday, including a new containment unit erected to minimise contamination from the world's biggest nuclear accident.
Energy officials also said the shelling had caused mass power outages in nearby Chernihiv region, cutting off 307,000 customers near Ukraine's northern border with Russia.
The Chernihiv region's governor said generators had been set up for key sites like hospitals, and emergency crews were working on restoring the power network.
The Energy Ministry statement made no mention of any possible increased risk of radioactive release as a result of the power cutoff to the defunct Chernobyl station. But it said emergency crews were working to restore the power supply.
"Due to Russian shelling of energy infrastructure in the Kyiv region in the city of Slavutych, an emergency situation has arisen at the facilities of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant," a ministry statement said.
"As a result of power surges, the new safe confinement facility, which isolates the destroyed fourth power unit of the Chernobyl station and prevents the release of radioactive materials into the environment, was left without power supply."
The statement said teams of experts were working on restoring power to the facility.
After the Chernobyl station's fourth reactor exploded in April 1986 and spread radioactivity throughout Europe, Soviet engineers hurriedly erected a "sarcophagus" around the reactor.
This was replaced by a new confinement structure in 2016, while the plant's other three reactors were gradually taken out of service.
The plant was briefly occupied by Russian forces at the beginning of their 2022 invasion of Ukraine. And a Russian drone pierced the confinement structure's roof in February.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr KozhukharEditing by Bill Berkrot)
