Technicians completed power line repairs near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant with aid from a local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog’s Director General Rafael Grossi said Dec. 30.
“I would like to thank both the Russian Federation and Ukraine for engaging constructively with us in making this possible by agreeing to another localized ceasefire,” Grossi said in a statement on the agency’s website. “As a result, we have managed to take a crucial step in support of nuclear safety and security.”
Grossi added, “however, the overall situation at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and Ukraine’s other nuclear sites remains precarious and our work is far from finished.”
The Ferosplavna 1 external line, one of two remaining external power lines down from the ten lines that were available before Russia invaded Ukraine, had been cut since May 7. The repairs to this line restored a backup path for electricity from the power grid to reach the plant if the plant loses internal power. Nuclear power plants need offsite power to cool reactors, the IAEA statement said.
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and one under Russian occupation, was also cut from its external power supply entirely on Sept. 23 when its then-only remaining high voltage line, the 750 kilovolt Dniprovska transmission line, was damaged by military activity less than a mile from the site. This was the tenth loss of external power since Russia invaded Ukraine February 2022.
This complete disconnect from external power lasted one month, during which time the facility had to rely on diesel generators, which Grossi has said are a “last line of defense” and that while there is “no immediate danger,” it is “clearly not a sustainable situation in terms of nuclear safety.”