Ukraine war: nuclear plant surrounded by Russian troops in Zaporizhzhia regains power, IAEA chief
- It is the second time in five days the plant, surrounded by Russian troops, had lost external power, which is needed to run vital safety systems
- Outage was apparently caused by ‘shelling damage to a far off substation’ according to the plant’s operator
The external power supply to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine has been restored after an outage that forced it to switch to diesel generators, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
“I’ve been informed by our team on site that external power to #Zaporizhzhia NPP is restored,” Grossi said on Twitter. “#ZNPP’s operator says this morning’s outage was caused by shelling damage to a far off substation, highlighting how precarious the situation is.”
Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom said on the Telegram social media platform that a Russian missile attack on the substation “Dniprovska” in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region to the north was damaged, leading to the shutdown of a key communication line to the plant – prompting the diesel generators to turn on automatically.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine’s southern command said its forces recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region, according to the southern Operational Command.
The villages of Novovasylivka, Novohryhorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka and Chervone in the Beryslav district were retaken as of October 11, according to the speaker of the southern command Vladislav Nazarov.
The settlements are in one of the four regions recently annexed by Russia.