IAEA chief: Zaporizhzhia plant disconnected from its last external power line

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Saturday that the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine was disconnected from its last external power line but was still able to run electricity through a reserve line amid sustained shelling in the area, The Associated Press reported..

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the agency’s experts, who arrived at Zaporizhzhia on Thursday, were told by senior Ukrainian staff that the fourth and last operational line was down. The three others were lost earlier during the conflict.

The IAEA experts learned, however, that the reserve line linking the facility to a nearby thermal power plant was delivering the electricity the plant generates to the external grid, the statement said.

The same reserve line can also provide backup power to the plant if needed, it added.

“We already have a better understanding of the functionality of the reserve power line in connecting the facility to the grid,” Grossi said, according to AP. “This is crucial information in assessing the overall situation there.”

The Zaporizhzhia complex has been occupied by Russian forces and operated by Ukrainian workers since the early days of the six-month-old war.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the nuclear installation, sparking fears of a nuclear accident.

The plant was recently severed from Ukraine’s power network for the first time in its four-decade history due to what Energoatom said were “actions of the invaders”. The plant came back online the next day.

The IAEA team’s visit was made possible after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed for the team of independent inspectors to travel to Zaporizhzhia via Ukraine, in an apparent resolution of a dispute over whether inspectors should travel to the plant via Ukraine or Russia.