Fighting broke out between Russian and Ukrainian forces Friday near Europe's largest nuclear power plant, causing a blaze and raising alarm from global leaders of a potential massive disaster.

Here are some facts about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Ukrainian authorities say was shelled by Russians.

- Where is the power plant? -

The plant is located in the southern Ukraine steppe on the Dnieper River, around 525 kilometres (326 miles) south of Chernobyl -- the site of the 1986 disaster which left hundreds dead.

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has a total capacity of around 6,000 megawatts, enough energy for roughly four million homes.

In normal times it produces one-fifth of Ukraine's electricity and almost half the energy generated by the country's nuclear power facilities.

Construction on the first reactor began in 1979. The facility now has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 reactors, the last of which was started up in 1995.

The life of each reactor is around 40-60 years -- or possibly more as nuclear technologies advance.

- What happened? -

Ukrainian authorities said Russian troops shelled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, causing a fire to break out in the building's training complex.

After hours of uncertainty, the site was secured, with US officials saying its reactors are being "safely shut down".

Zaporizhzhia's reactors are pressurised water reactors, which are considered among the safest.

Similar reactors exist at Balakovo, located on the Volga River in southwest Russia, and at Kozloduy, which is on the Danube in Bulgaria.

The initial design was developed from a nuclear submarine reactor and is very different to the graphite-moderated reactor at Chernobyl.

Unlike Zaporizhzhia's reactors, Chernobyl's reactor was initially designed to produce plutonium, not generate power.

- What about radiation? -

The Zaporizhzhia reactors operate on fuel enriched with fissile isotope Uranium-235.

They work by the core heating steam, but unlike other reactors the nuclear-contaminated steam is not used to generate energy.

Instead, it is used to power another uncontaminated steam circuit which then turns the turbines.

This means that radiation levels for workers at the plant are relatively low.

Background radiation levels around the plant are currently around 0.1 microsieverts per hour, according to the plant's operator.

That is below the global average of background radiation and much less than flying on an airplane or getting an x-ray.

During the Chernobyl disaster radiation levels were around 300 sieverts per hour, many millions of times higher.

- What happens now? -

After Russia's military action against Ukraine in 2014, Kyiv developed new safety protocols for the physical protection of nuclear facilities across the country -- including regular inspections, vulnerability assessments and implementing automated data control systems.

The air defence system over Zaporizhzhia was also strengthened.

By 6:20 am local time (0420 GMT) Friday, the fire was extinguished, local emergency services in Ukraine said, confirming that there were no victims.

But the brief blaze had a strong immediate reaction.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "reckless actions (which) could now threaten the safety of all of Europe", and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky denounced the attack, calling on world leaders for help.

"If there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe," he said.

"Only immediate European action can stop Russian troops."

Outrage as Russian forces attack Ukrainian nuclear plant
Kyiv (AFP) March 4, 2022 - Ukraine accused the Kremlin of "nuclear terror" on Friday, after Europe's largest atomic power plant was attacked and taken over by invading forces, sparking Western horror at the threat of Russia's war contaminating all of Europe.

Blasts lit up the night sky as the plant at Zaporizhzhia came under shell fire, while Russian forces advanced in southern Ukraine and continued their sometimes indiscriminate bombardment of several cities elsewhere.

Ukrainian firefighters said they were prevented from accessing the site initially, before the attack was paused and they were able to douse a blaze at a training facility on the site.

The six reactors at Zaporizhzhia, which can power enough energy for four million homes, were apparently undamaged and international monitors reported no spike in radiation.

But the attack was slammed in Washington, London and other Western capitals as utterly irresponsible.

"We survived a night that could have stopped the story, the history of Ukraine, the history of Europe," Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said.

An explosion at Zaporizhzhia would have equalled "six Chernobyls", he said, referring to the plant in Ukraine that was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

"Russian tank commanders knew what they were firing at," Zelensky alleged, adding: "The terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror."

After phoning Zelensky during the night, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "reckless actions" that "could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe", and pressed anew for a ceasefire.

Putin, however, has been unrepentant about an offensive that has cast Russia into the economic, sporting and cultural equivalent of exile to Siberia.

He said Thursday that the invasion was going "strictly according to schedule, according to plan" in its aims of driving out the "neo-Nazis" in Kyiv led by Zelensky -- who is Jewish.

Addressing security chiefs in televised comments, Putin added that he would never abandon his conviction "that Russians and Ukrainians are one people".

French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking to Putin on Thursday, believes "the worst is to come", an aide said.

- 'Like Aleppo' -

Russia has intensified strikes across the country during the nine days of conflict, with fresh reports of civilian casualties and devastating damage, particularly in southern areas near Kherson, the first city to fall to Moscow's troops.

In a second round of talks held Thursday, Moscow agreed to a Ukrainian request for humanitarian corridors to allow terrified residents to flee, but there was no clarity on how they would work, and no sign of any move towards a ceasefire.

Zelensky called for direct talks with Putin, saying they were "the only way to stop this war". But he also urged the West to step up military assistance and "give me planes".

Ukrainian leaders warn that Russia, with its offensive stalling north of Kyiv, is bent on reprising the horrific tactics that used to level the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2016.

The port city of Mariupol, east of Kherson, is cut off without water or electricity in the depths of winter.

Mariupol's deputy mayor Sergei Orlov told BBC radio his city's humanitarian situation was "terrible", after 40 hours of continuous shelling including on schools and hospitals.

"Today Putin style of war is like Aleppo. So Mariupol goes to Aleppo," Orlov said in English. "I believe that he wants to destroy Ukraine as a nation, and Mariupol is on this way."

In the northern city of Chernihiv, 33 people died Thursday when Russian forces hit residential areas, including schools and a high-rise apartment block, according to local officials.

Authorities say residential parts in the eastern city of Kharkiv have also come under indiscriminate shelling, which UN prosecutors are investigating as a possible war crime.

Many Ukrainians were digging in, with volunteers in the southern industrial hub of Dnipro filling sandbags and collecting bottles for Molotov cocktails.

In the western city of Lviv, others organised food and supplies to send to cities under attack and produced home-made anti-tank obstacles after watching YouTube tutorials.

- Facebook, BBC blocked -

The conflict has already produced more than one million refugees who have flooded into neighbouring countries to be welcomed by volunteers giving them water, food and medical treatment.

Both the EU and the United States said they would approve temporary protection for all refugees fleeing the war.

It is also driving some Russians to flee west.

On one of the few remaining routes from Russia to the EU, trains from Saint Petersburg to Finland have been packed with Russians fearful that now is their last chance to escape ever-tougher Western sanctions or a Kremlin crackdown on domestic opposition.

"I know some people who are quite desperate at the moment to go abroad," said Elena, a 37-year-old Russian living in Finland who did not want to give her full name.

A lot of people "don't feel safe, they know that the economic situation will be very hard from now on, and also many people from a moral perspective can't bear staying", she told AFP in Helsinki.

The fear of igniting all-out war with nuclear-armed Russia has put some limits on Western support for Ukraine, though a steady supply of weaponry and intelligence continues.

The main lever used to pressure Russia globally has been sanctions, which have sent the ruble into free-fall and forced the central bank to impose a 30-percent tax on sales of hard currency after a run on lenders.

Putin's invasion has also pushed some eastern European countries to lean even harder West, with both Georgia and Moldova applying for EU membership on Thursday.

In Russia, authorities have imposed a news blackout and two liberal media groups said they were halting operations, in another death-knell for independent reporting under Putin's regime.

On Friday, Facebook and multiple media websites including the BBC were partially inaccessible in Russia, as authorities crack down on voices criticising the war.

Intel and Airbnb were among the latest Western companies to announce they were pausing business in Russia and Belarus.

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