The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant again lost contact with the last external power transmission line. The facility continues to supply electricity to the network via a backup line.
This was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on September 3.
The fourth operational 750-kilovolt power transmission line failed. However, IAEA experts currently present at Europeʼs largest nuclear power plant have also learned that a backup line connecting the facility to an adjacent thermal power plant supplies electricity to the external grid. The same backup line can also provide backup power to the power plant if needed.
In addition, the stationʼs management informed the IAEA team that one of the two operating units of the ZNPP was shut down today, September 3, due to network restrictions. One reactor is still operating and generating electricity for both cooling and other important safety functions at the site, as well as for households, factories, and other facilities via the grid.
The "authority" of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region informed the Russian propaganda publication RIA that electricity goes through the power lines only to the captured territories, and the power of the two working power units at the Zaporizhzhia NPP has been reduced by half.
- On September 1, the IAEA mission arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The head of the agency, Raphael Grossi, spoke about the fact that six IAEA employees remain at the station. The agencyʼs delegation "saw everything it wanted to see in the first place." Grossi said he saw "remains of shells on the buildings, which means that the physical integrity of the objects was violated." Despite this, the vast majority of security and safety systems at the station are in "relatively good condition".