“The issue on the agenda now is the restoration of external power supply to the Zaporizhzhia NPP through the repair of two damaged power transmission lines — ‘Dniprovska’ and ‘Ferrosplavna-1’. To implement this, it is necessary to agree on a local ceasefire in the areas where repair work will be carried out”, - said russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, as reported by russian media.
“On September 23, the plant lost external power supply — the high-voltage power line ‘Dniprovska’ was disconnected. Moscow claims that the shutdown occurred due to Ukrainian shelling. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky accused russia of the attacks”, - reports the BBC.
“Due to russian shelling, the plant is cut off from power, from the grid. It is being supplied with electricity by diesel generators. This is an emergency. The generators and the plant are not designed for this and have never operated in such a mode for so long”, - Zelensky said on September 30, a week after the blackout began. According to him, “it is precisely the russians who, through shelling, are preventing the repair of power lines to the plant and the restoration of basic safety”.
“At present, active preparations are underway. We expect that repair work on both power transmission lines will begin before the end of this week”, - Ulyanov said.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe does not produce electricity, but it needs power for fuel cooling.
As reported, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi stated on October 9 that the process to restore external power supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine had been launched after frequent contacts with both sides in recent weeks to address the issue of the plant’s recent loss of external power.