According to the operator, the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, which is controlled by the Russian army, was completely disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid on Thursday.
Fire broke out in the ash pits of a nearby coal-fired power plant, Energoatom announced on Thursday. These would have damaged the power lines to the nuclear power plant. “Therefore, the two functioning reactor blocks of the plant were disconnected from the grid.”
The power plant’s safety systems are functioning normally and work is underway to reconnect one of the reactor blocks to the grid. This was “the first time in the history of the plant” happened.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyj commented on the process in his nightly speech: “The emergency protection worked,” he said. He accused the Russian side of damaging Ukrainian power lines.
According to energy sources, the two separated blocks are currently being powered by diesel generators. Each unit consists of the reactor itself, a cooling system and other components with three Soviet-era diesel generators. However, these “could not be operated for weeks,” the insider told Reuters news agency.
The Russian occupiers, on the other hand, announced that one of the two power plant blocks currently in operation was already back on the grid. The two blocks only needed to be shut down temporarily after a fire broke out due to Ukrainian shelling, the region’s occupation chief, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram. The information provided by both sides was initially not independently verifiable.
Balizki also explained that the supply of people in the surrounding regions, who have meanwhile been affected by a massive power outage, will be guaranteed again shortly. The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, who had fled, Dmytro Orlov, had previously reported that the power supply to the small town where the nuclear power plant is located was being gradually restored.
According to the operator, fires on the site of the thermal power plant near the nuclear power plant caused the last remaining connection line to the power grid to be interrupted. Three other lines had previously been damaged “by terrorist attacks” by the Russian side.
Nevertheless, the power supply to the nuclear power plant itself is still guaranteed via the thermal power plant. Attempts are currently being made to bring at least one reactor back online, Energoatom explained.
In the past few weeks, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has come under fire several times, fueling fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Both warring parties blame each other for the shelling.
According to experts, it is unclear who would be entrusted with dealing with a nuclear disaster. “We don’t know what happens in a war situation when we have a nuclear emergency,” said MIT’s Kate Brown. During the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, the Soviet Union was able to bring tens of thousands of people, equipment and emergency vehicles to the scene. “Who would now take responsibility for this mission?”
