IAEA reports another shutdown of Zaporizhzhia NPP
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has lost contact with the last external transmission line that was in working order.
This is stated in the statement, published on IAEA website, reports Censor.NЕТ with reference to Suspilnе.
"Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has once again lost communication with the last remaining trunk external power line, but the facility continues to feed power into the grid via a backup line," the report said.
The organization noted that less than 48 hours after IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited the plant with the mission, he told Agency experts that the fourth available 750-kilovolt transmission line at the nuclear power plant had failed. At the same time, three other lines had been lost earlier during the conflict.
"However, IAEA experts, who are now present at Europe's largest nuclear power plant located in the center of the combat zone, have also learned that a 330/750 kV backup line connecting the facility to an adjacent thermal power plant supplies the electricity produced by ZNPP, to an external grid. The same backup line can also provide backup power to ZNPP as needed," the agency noted.
The plant management also informed the IAEA team that one of the two operating ZNPP units was shut down in the afternoon of September 3 due to grid restrictions.
"The same unit 5 was also shut down on September 1 - the day Director General Grossi arrived at the site - due to an internal power failure, but it was reconnected the next day," the IAEA noted.
The agency added that one reactor is still operating and generating electricity for both cooling and other critical safety functions at the site, as well as for households, factories and other facilities via the grid.
