The Ukrainian power plant operator Enerhoatom announced that on Saturday morning the last remaining main power line was damaged and interrupted “due to renewed shelling by Russian troops”.
The nuclear power plant, which was shut down weeks ago, is completely without electricity, which means that diesel generators have started up automatically. The diesel reserves were sufficient for ten days of such an emergency operation, it was said. The power lines need to be repaired.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe was cut off from the Ukrainian power grid for around two weeks in September. During the outage, power was supplied through emergency power lines and through the last of the six reactors still in operation. The last reactor was then shut down for fear of a nuclear accident. However, the nuclear material must continue to be cooled even when it is switched off.
The continuation of the shelling, which hit the power plant’s only external power source, was “highly irresponsible,” said the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, according to a statement. A protection zone must urgently be built around the power plant. According to Grossi, he wants to negotiate this with Kyiv and Moscow.
According to the Ukrainian nuclear supervisory authority, the existing diesel reserves are sufficient for the operation of the emergency diesel generators for ten days, the climate ministry in Vienna told APA. Work is already underway to restore the external power supply. There are no increased measured values at the nuclear power plant, which is about 1,300 km away from Austria. Also, no effects on Austria are to be expected. However, the radiation protection department of the Ministry of Climate Protection is following further developments and will provide information about changes if necessary.
Russia has effectively controlled the nuclear power plant since the beginning of March, when Moscow’s troops occupied large parts of southern Ukraine as part of the war of aggression. The power plant has come under fire several times during heavy fighting in recent months. Ukraine and Russia blame each other. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the nuclear power plant to be nationalized as part of the illegal annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories.
Source: Nachrichten
