Ukrainian energy workers restore Zaporizhzhia NPP power line after Russian attack
Illustrative photo: energy workers connected the Zaporizhzhia NPP to a high-voltage transmission line (Getty Images)
Ukrainian energy workers have restored power supply to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The high-voltage line had been damaged as a result of fire from Russian forces, according to a statement from Ukrenergo (the national power company of Ukraine).
"Since November 14, after another Russian attack, the Zaporizhzhia NPP had been supplied through a single line, which is a gross violation of international nuclear safety requirements," the statement said.
Energy workers recalled that the restored line had operated for less than a week after the previous reconnection. Before that, Russian fire had put it out of service in May, and it remained non-operational for about six months.
"The reasons for the outages are regular Russian attacks that damage wires, insulation, and the lightning protection cable, causing breaks and short circuits," Ukrenergo explained.
Throughout the full-scale war, Ukrainian energy workers have restored power supply to the Zaporizhzhia NPP more than 40 times. The plant has completely lost power from Ukraine’s energy system 10 times.
On November 14, the Zaporizhzhia NPP lost power from the Dniprovska transmission line, placing it under threat of yet another blackout.
What preceded
Earlier, on September 23, Energoatom reported the tenth full blackout at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant since the start of the full-scale war.
According to the company’s statement, the Russian forces deliberately did not reconnect the plant to Ukraine’s power grid. At the same time, the only external transmission line that connected the Zaporizhzhia NPP to Ukrainian networks went out of service.
As a result, the nuclear plant was forced to switch to emergency power from diesel generators.
Finally, on October 23, power at the Zaporizhzhia NPP was restored. This allowed the plant to exit its tenth blackout, in which it had remained for the past month.
