Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been reconnected to the power grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Sunday, calling the connection “a temporary relief from a still untenable situation.
The IAEA had announced on Saturday that the facility in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, had lost its last source of external power due to new bombings, and was relying on emergency generators to provide the power it needed.
it needs to ensure certain safety functions, including the cooling of its six reactors, all of which are shut down.
“Our team in Zaporijjia confirms that the outside power line lost yesterday (Saturday) has been restored and (the plant) is reconnected to the grid – a temporary relief from a still untenable situation,” wrote IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on his Twitter account.
“We now need a protection zone” around the plant, added the head of the UN nuclear safety agency, indicating that he intends to travel to Russia and see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a short time “to establish this zone.
Located in southern Ukraine on the Dnieper River, the Zaporizhia power plant was captured by Russian forces in March.
The subject of clashes between Russians and Ukrainians, which have led to several fears of a nuclear disaster since August, it has been targeted by bombings for which both sides have blamed each other, and it has been disconnected from the network
several times since then.
Russia formally appropriated the plant on Wednesday, in the wake of Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including the one where it is located, following self-determination “referenda” deemed null and void by the international community.
