Work Underway To Restore Power At Ukrainian Nuclear Plant After 4-Week Outage: IAEA

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has said work is ongoing to restore power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant (ZNPP) following the establishment of rare “ceasefire zones”.

According to a report by International Atomic Energy Agency on October 15, “Before the conflict, the ZNPP had access to 10 power lines. In recent years, that was reduced to two, of which one 330 kilovolt (kV) line was lost on 7 May while the sole remaining 750 kV line was disconnected on 23 September. It is by far the ZNPP’s longest complete loss of off-site power during the conflict.”

It further stated that this was the tenth time that the power plant faced blackout.

The nuclear plant has been without power from electricity network for past four weeks, which is the longest

blackout since the beginning of Ukraine-Russia war, CNN reported.

“Work has begun to repair damaged off-site power lines to ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant) after 4-week outage, following establishment of local ceasefire zones to allow work to proceed,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi said in a social media post on Saturday.

“Restoration of off-site power is crucial for nuclear safety and security. Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable complex repair plan to proceed,” he added.

According to Ukraine’s energy ministry, the experts were working to restore the power lines.

“The only reason for the unprecedented risks and threat of a radiation incident in Europe is Russian military aggression, the occupation of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhya NPP and the systematic shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” the ministry said in a Telegram post.

While Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of “intentionally” cutting the electricity supply to the nuclear plant to test reconnection with the Russian grid, accused Russia of “intentionally” cutting the electricity supply to the nuclear plant to test reconnection with the Russian grid, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, CNN quoted the Russian-controlled power plant as stating in a post on Telegram that staff were carrying out restoration works and the Russian defense ministry was playing a “key role” in ensuring that the “work can be carried out in an area under active shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces”.