Power to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant cut, restored, IAEA says
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Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost access to all off-site power for several hours on Nov. 8, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with the power later being restored.
The plant lost connection to its sole 330-kilovolt (kV) external power line, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for cooling and safety functions, the IAEA announced around noon local time.
10 hours later, the IAEA confirmed power had been restored.
The IAEA says that the exact cause and location of the disconnection are not yet known.
"It is the 27th such event during the conflict, underlining the continued precarious nuclear safety situation," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said about the latest power cut.
In June, a similar outage forced the plant to rely on emergency diesel generators for 15 hours.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located in the city of Enerhodar in southern Ukraine, is Europe's largest nuclear power plant. It has been under Russian occupation since the start of the 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.
The plant has repeatedly faced threats to nuclear safety, including drone attacks, disruptions to external power supplies, and incidents affecting plant workers.
A drone attack on Oct. 29 reportedly killed an employee. The victim was reportedly a welder working at the plant's centralized repair workshop, according to the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
On Oct. 3, the IAEA reported a series of drone attacks that damaged transformers at the nearby Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant, threatening the nuclear facility's external electricity supply.
In August, a drone explosion at a bus stop used by plant personnel killed one person and injured 15 others, according to the IAEA.
The agency has maintained a permanent monitoring presence at the Russian-occupied facility since September 2022 over concerns of the risk of a nuclear accident.
