MOSCOW — Backup diesel generators are again keeping the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant’s fuel cool after the plant in southeastern Ukraine lost its outside electricity supply on Sunday, its Russian-installed management and the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
The plant produces no power of its own. It draws electricity through outside lines to run the cooling systems its six reactors still need, even shut down.
That supply failed when the Ferosplavna-1 line disconnected early Sunday. Ukrainian officials put the time at 2:36 a.m. and said an automatic attempt to reconnect the line did not work.
“The cause and location of the latest disconnection are not yet known,”
What the agency could say was how long the backup can hold. Fuel on site can run a limited number of the emergency generators for about two weeks, and Director General Rafael Grossi pressed for the grid link to be restored and for diesel stocks to be built up.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, counted this as the 16th complete loss of outside power at the plant this year. The IAEA put the wider figure at 27 complete losses since the conflict began.
The plant’s other outside line has been out for weeks. The agency noted on Oct. 23 that the main Dniprovska line was still unavailable, leaving Ferosplavna-1 as the only connection, the same line covered by IAEA-brokered repair work last month.
Management at the plant said automatic protection shut the line down. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding surveillance zone were normal, it said.
“Staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are monitoring all operational parameters of the equipment,” the management said in a statement on the MAX messaging app. “All necessary measures to maintain the safe condition of the power units are being taken in full.”
Russia took the plant, the largest in Europe, in the opening weeks of its February 2022 invasion. Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other ever since of actions that put nuclear safety at risk.
An IAEA-brokered local ceasefire in early September allowed crews to repair the outside supply after the plant had gone without it since Aug. 20. No timetable for restoring the line this time had been announced by Sunday morning.
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