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Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power again, IAEA reports
🇳🇴 Norway /Energy & Infrastructure

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power again, IAEA reports

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

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  • The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has lost its last external power supply, forcing critical safety systems to run on diesel generators, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
  • The power loss occurred on the north side of the Dnipro River, and the cause cannot be assessed due to military activity in the area.
  • Russia occupied the plant, Europe's largest, in 2022, and since then, both sides have accused each other of risking a nuclear disaster near the facility.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has once again lost its final external power supply, forcing essential safety systems to rely on diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported. The power interruption occurred on the north bank of the Dnipro River overnight.

Due to ongoing military activity in the vicinity, technicians are unable to assess the exact cause of the outage. Russia seized control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe's largest nuclear facility, during its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The situation around the plant has remained highly unstable since then, with frequent accusations exchanged between the warring parties regarding the risk of a nuclear catastrophe stemming from attacks near the facility.

The last external power supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been cut off again.

— IAEAReporting the loss of external power to the nuclear facility.

This marks the 19th time the plant has lost its external power supply since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The previous instance of a complete power loss was on June 11.

Thus, important safety systems must be operated by diesel generators.

— IAEAExplaining the immediate consequence of the power loss.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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