The IAEA is alarmed by another power outage at the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafal Mariano Grossi, expressed his extreme concern over another shutdown of the ZNPP power grid.
The only external power line was switched off on May 22 at about half past five in the morning local time, and it took more than five hours to restore power supply.
Grossi noted that since the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine, this largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been disconnected from the national power grid for the seventh time, so emergency diesel generators have to be turned on to cool the reactors and ensure the safe operation of all systems.
The shutdown this morning of all external sources of electricity demonstrates a more vulnerable situation with nuclear safety at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Grossi said. “As I have said more than once, this cannot go on, we are playing with fire. We must act now to avoid a more real danger of a nuclear accident in Europe, with all the consequences for the public and the environment.”
There has not been a single operating emergency transmission line left at ZNPP since the last such line on the right bank of the Dnieper was damaged on March 1. It has not yet been restored, so the nuclear power plant is forced to rely on backup diesel-electric generators.
According to Grossi, this has led to the creation of an unprecedented and extremely dangerous situation where the nuclear safety of nuclear power plants is at risk.
In this regard, the IAEA Director General calls for maximum efforts to restore backup power lines and again demanded that IAEA employees be allowed into the neighboring Zaporizhzhya CHPP, where the substation that previously supplied electricity to the nuclear power plant is located. They cannot get there, despite repeated promises from Rosatom.
Source: Racurs
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