Zaporizhzhia NPP disconnected from electricity grid due to shelling

Following the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant being shelled, the last power line of the plant still connected to Ukraine’s electricity grid was damaged, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko reports. 

“The NPP has been disconnected for a third time. Over the night, the last power line that was connecting the plant to Ukraine’s electricity grid got damaged following the Russian army shelling the NPP. The Zaporizhzhia NPP is still operational due to diesel generators, the petrol for which will last 10 days. Currently, the professionalism of Ukrainian nuclear workers is the only safeguard from a potential nuclear incident,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.

He connected the shelling to the visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Director General Rafael Grossi to Moscow. 

In his turn, member of the Russia-appointed “administration” of the Zaporizhzhia region Vladimir Rogov reported that the plant employees had shifted the plant to operate on diesel generators due to shelling carried out by Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Ukraine of “provocations aimed at posing a threat to create a technological disaster”.

Yesterday, 7 October, IAEA declared that “shelling damaged a power line providing electricity to reactor unit 6” of the NPP, “forcing the unit to temporarily rely on its emergency diesel generators”. 

The IAEA experts published a report after visiting the facility in early September. The report said that creating a “protection zone” around the facility’s premises was a necessary solution to prevent the potential damages caused by shelling which might lead to “a nuclear incident.” Moreover, the report noted that the facility’s personnel was in low spirits and physically exhausted.

On 11 September, Enerhoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, reported shutting the last functioning power unit down, several days after the facility was disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid.

The plant first disconnected from Ukraine’s grid on 25 August; its own electricity needs were powered by the local thermal power plant.