International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called the repair of the Dniprovska 750 kV power line, which has been down since 23 September, a “crucial step for nuclear safety and security”.
According to the agency, it “continues to coordinate with both sides on further repairs” to the back-up Ferosplavna 330 kV line, which was disconnected in May.
The repair work began on Saturday after what Grossi said had been “weeks of complex negotiations” leading to Russia and Ukraine agreeing “to an IAEA proposal to establish temporary ceasefire zones around two specific locations on opposite sides of the frontline, to enable their respective expert teams to conduct repairs on two power lines that were recently damaged during the military conflict”.
Before the war, there were 10 different external power lines to the plant, but by May this year that number had fallen to one, with one back-up line. Both sides accuse the other of causing the damage to the power lines to the plant, which is on the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The six-unit Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. All its units are shut down. It is the tenth time that the plant has lost external power, although on previous occasions it was for a matter of hours rather than the current case of weeks.
Without external power supply it relies on a fleet of emergency diesel generators to provide essential safety functions, including powering cooling pumps. The IAEA says that its monitoring has confirmed that radiation levels remain within normal levels.
