The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected from the Ukrainian grid, the country’s nuclear agency Energoatom said on Monday, saying it was the result of a fire caused by Russian bombing.
“As a result, the No. 6 power supply unit has been unloaded and disconnected from the grid, which currently supplies the ZNPP’s own needs,” the agency said in its statement.
Energoatom is working to restore the connection, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday.
“There is a chance to restore electricity transmission to the Ukrainian grid,” the spokesperson added, saying he could not detail the timetables as the situation remained tense.
The spokesperson noted that the situation was not considered an emergency.
“Genset No. 6 is still running and cooling all the rest of the nuclear reactors. So basically it maintains the power of the plant itself,” the spokesperson explained. “When the generators turn on, usually automatically, this situation would be considered an emergency. At this time, it is not.”
The Russian-controlled military-civilian administration of the city of Enerhodar, where the power plant is located, did not say whether the power plant had been disconnected from the Ukrainian grid, but said the situation at the plant was normal.
The Energoatom spokesman also said that disconnecting the plant from the Ukrainian grid would not facilitate the plant’s connection to the Russian grid, due to damage to transmission lines.
