Work has begun to restore damaged power lines to the Zaporizhzhia NPP after four weeks of outages. This was reported by the IAEA, citing a statement by the agency’s Director General, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
“Restoring off-site power is crucial for nuclear safety. Both sides have been constructively cooperating with the IAEA to ensure the implementation of a comprehensive repair plan, Grossi emphasized.
He specified that the repair became possible after the establishment of local ceasefire zones.
As a reminder, on September 23, the ZNPP experienced its tenth blackout since the beginning of the occupation – the only line through which the plant received electricity from the Ukrainian power system, the 750 kV Dniprovska line, was cut off. After that, the NPP switched to power from emergency diesel generators, which provided the operation of pumps for cooling fuel in six shut-down reactors and spent nuclear fuel.
On October 2, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga stated that Russia had intentionally disconnected the plant from the Ukrainian power system in order to test the possibility of further connecting it to its own.
On October 10, after negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow, the IAEA Director General announced that the restoration of external power supply to the ZNPP would be carried out from the Ukrainian power system – through the “Dniprovska” and “Ferrosplavna-1” lines. According to him, repairs are needed at both sites, located on opposite sides of the front line, several kilometers from the plant.
