The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday that work is being done to reconnect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the grid after it had been running on emergency diesel generators for more than two weeks. The IAEA said that the initiative comes after long talks with both Ukraine and Russia to fix two high-voltage lines that were cut near the front line.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, said that work has begun to restore off-site power through the 750 kV Dniprovska line and the 330 kV Ferosplavna-1 line. Grossi remarked, as quoted by the IAEA, “While it will still take some time before the grid connection … has been restored, the two sides have worked with us in a positive way to reach this important goal for the sake of nuclear safety and security.”
The last external line at Europe’s largest nuclear plant went down on September 23, making it the eighth grid shutdown since the war started. Since then, the plant has had to use numerous diesel units to run the cooling systems for six shut-down reactors and spent fuel. The IAEA says that the team on site is still reporting normal radiation levels and no temperature rises in the reactor or spent-fuel coolant.
There are still security threats around the plant, and some have seen explosions nearby in the last several days. The IAEA added that other Ukrainian nuclear installations have also been hit by larger outages. The decommissioned Chornobyl complex is still without a vital external line while repairs are being made.
The IAEA has told both sides to make sure that repair teams can get to the site safely and has stressed that no one will gain from further damage. The facility hasn’t made any electricity during the war, but it needs stable outside power to keep the reactor and spent fuel cold.
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