Power returns to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after prolonged outage, IAEA says
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Power was restored to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after a 15-hour outage that forced the facility to rely on emergency diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on June 6.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said off-site electricity supplies resumed earlier in the day, ending one of the longest power disruptions at the facility since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"Off-site power was restored to the ZNPP this morning after a 15-hour outage, when the site had to rely on emergency diesel generators for electricity to cool its six shutdown reactors," the agency said in a social media post.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the outage underscored persistent risks to the plant's power supply.
"It was the 18th loss of off-site power during the war and one of the longest, highlighting the extreme fragility of the electrical grid and the urgency of proceeding with planned power line repairs under the protection of an IAEA-brokered ceasefire," Grossi said.
The outage follows another disruption reported by the IAEA last week, when the agency said the plant experienced an extended communications blackout and inspectors were unable to contact plant personnel and agency representatives at the site for several hours.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station and one of the world's largest, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russian forces seized the facility shortly after launching their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While Moscow controls the plant and large parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia and most of the oblast's population remain under Ukrainian administration.
