- According to the IAEA, the incident underlines "the fragile nuclear safety and security situation during the current military conflict"
According to TASS, Russia's state-owned news agency article published on November 1, 2022, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the main power supply line of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant’s Unit 4 had been cut off following a landmine explosion outside the station’s territory.
"A landmine explosion cut the main power supply connection to one of the reactors of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP)," the agency said in a statement.
"The explosion occurred yesterday evening outside the ZNPP’s perimeter fence, disconnecting the 750 kilovolt (kV) external power line between plant’s switchyard and the main electrical transformer of reactor unit 4," it continued.
Instead, Unit 4 is receiving the electricity it needs for cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions from a back-up line.
According to the IAEA, the incident underlines "the fragile nuclear safety and security situation <…> during the current military conflict."
The Zaporozhye NPP, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, is located in the city of Energodar. Russian forces took control of the plant in March 2022. Since then, Ukrainian troops have been occasionally shelling Energodar’s residential neighborhoods and the power plant itself, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems.
In early September, an IAEA mission led by Director General Rafael Grossi visited the facility. After the mission left the power plant, two of the agency’s staffers remained on the site. Later, the agency published a report calling for the establishment of a protection zone around the ZNPP in order to prevent a nuclear disaster caused by the ongoing hostilities.
