Ukraine asks Europe to double electricity supplies
"We asked Europe to increase" the supply from the current import ceiling of one gigawatt currently to the two gigawatts that the electricity grid handle" Ukraine's Energy Minister German Galushchenko told AFP.
Galushchenko was attending a conference outside of Paris organised by the International Energy Agency.
He said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, which uses water supplied from the dam to cool its reactors, does not pose an immediate threat at this point but needs to be monitored.
The operator of the dam said Thursday that the water level had fallen below the level needed to feed the power plant with water.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who is due to visit the plant next week, said this week that existing water in cooling ponds at the plant and elsewhere can still be used "for some time" to cool the reactors and the spent fuel pools in the reactor buildings.
Around 600 square kilometres of land were hit by the flooding.
"Up to 80 villages are expected to be destroyed" and "20,000 households are without electricity", the International Energy Agency estimated.
However, the UN nuclear watchdog said there was "no short-term risk" to the plant.
The plant's six reactors have been shut down but they still need cooling water to ensure there is no nuclear disaster.
