Ukraine restores external power to Russian occupied nuclear plant

• 11 months ago (2023-05-23)
• David Flin

Europe 1061 Nuclear 640

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Ukraine has reconnected the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine – currently occupied by Russian military invaders – to its external power supply after an outage that had left it reliant on emergency generators.

Energoatom said that Russian shelling had disconnected a power line leading to a loss of external supply, with back-up diesel generators at the plant started up to ensure a flow of cooling water for the nuclear fuel.

The Ukrainian national grid operator Ukrenergo said that repair work on the power lines had been successfully carried out.

Energoatom said that this was the seventh time Russian shelling had cut external power – necessary to provide a flow of cooling water – to the plant since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.