Zaporizhzhia loses off-site power for first time in 19 months
The six-unit nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian military control since March 2022, had lost all off-site power eight times previously. Before the war it had 10 external power lines, but most of those lines are no longer operational and since 7 May it has had to reply on a single 750 kV power line.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has experts stationed at the plant, which is on the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces. It said it did not know the cause of the power loss but said it coincided with air raid alarms in the region.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: "What was once virtually unimaginable - that a major nuclear power plant would repeatedly lose all of its external power connections - has unfortunately become a common occurrence at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Almost three and a half years into this devastating war, nuclear safety in Ukraine remains very much in danger.”
The 18 emergency diesel generators started operating when the external power supply was lost. The power is needed to cool the cores of the reactors - which are all currently shut down - and the used fuel pools. Ten days worth of fuel for the back-up generators is stored at the plant, and the generators were turned off after the power supply returned.
According to Russia's Tass news agency, the latest rotation of IAEA experts at the site took place on Monday.
