IAEA: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses connection to back-up power line due to shelling

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that late in the evening on Dec. 29, the last functioning back-up power line at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia, was disconnected as a result of shelling.

“The facility’s fragile supplies of electricity from the grid,” the brief read.

The last of the six plant’s reactors was shut down in September due to the ongoing shelling, but still requires electricity for crucial cooling systems and “other essential nuclear safety and security functions,” the IAEA reported.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the plant. Independent investiagtions and satellite imagery have shown Russian military equipment placed inside turbine halls and beside reactor buildings, as well as rocket artillery shelling the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, which remains under Ukrainian control.

Life on the front line of Russia’s new nuclear brinkmanship

The Kyiv Independent