All six power units of the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye nuclear power plant remain offline despite the restoration of the ZNPP 750 kV overhead transmission line – Dneprovskaya.
“All six units remain disconnected from the grid after the resumption of the power line,” the IAEA said in a statement on Ukraine on Thursday evening.
The agency also noted that at the time of publication there is no information on the direct cause of the power outage, and in the event of a loss of external power, ZNPP, like other nuclear power plants around the world, still has diesel generators available to provide backup power.
“Almost every day, a new incident occurs at or near the ZNPP. We cannot afford to waste any more time. I am determined to personally lead the IAEA mission to the plant in the coming days to help stabilize the situation with nuclear safety and security,” he said in connection with with this, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, whose words are quoted in the message.
On his Twitter, Grossi, after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, also noted that France is fully mobilized to support the efforts of the IAEA to send an emergency mission of experts to the Zaporozhye NPP.
In addition, the British Ministry of Defense on its Twitter on Thursday reported that Russia had installed armored personnel carriers within 60 meters of the fifth ZNPP reactor.
“Probably, Russian troops tried to hide the vehicles by parking them under overhead pipes,” the Defense Ministry suggested, adding that, apparently, Russia was ready to use any Ukrainian military activity near the ZNPP for propaganda purposes.
“As long as Russia continues its military occupation of the ZNPP, the main risks to the operation of the reactor are likely to remain failures in the operation of the reactor cooling systems, damage to the backup power supply, or errors by pressure personnel,” the ministry said.
As reported, on August 25, ZNPP was completely disconnected from the grid for the first time in its history due to the shutdown of the last (fourth) ZNPP communication line with the Ukrainian energy system – 750 kV overhead line ZNPP – “Dneprovskaya”.
According to the NAEK Energoatom, the overhead lines were switched off due to fires at the ash dumps of the Zaporizhzhya TPP, located next to the Zaporizhzhya NPP, as a result of shelling by the Russian military.
The shutdown of the overhead line led to the operation of the protection of two operating ZNPP power units – Nos. 5-6.
Three other communication lines were damaged earlier during shelling by the Russian military.
“The NPP’s own needs for power supply are provided from the energy system of Ukraine through the communication line of ZNPP – Zaporizhzhya TPP. There are no comments on the operation of automation and security systems yet,” the NAEC explained.
After the station was seized by the Russian military on March 4, it switched to work in two blocks out of six, then for two weeks it worked with three, and recently again with two.
The head of the IAEA, Grossi, suggested on August 25 that the mission to the ZNPP is a matter of a few days.
