Zaporizhzhia NPP disconnected from power grid, operating through reserve line - IAEA

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been disconnected from its main power line and is operating through a reserve line, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported has said.

The IAEA said this in a statement published on September 3, Ukrinform reports.

Referring to its representatives at the site, the IAEA reported that the ZNPP "has once again lost the connection to its last remaining main external power line, but the facility is continuing to supply electricity to the grid through a reserve line."

"Less than 48 hours after Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on Thursday established the presence of the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia (ISAMZ) at the facility in southern Ukraine, the Agency's experts were told by senior Ukrainian staff that the ZNPP's fourth operational 750 Kilovolt (kV) power line was down. The three others were lost earlier," the IAEA said.

In addition, plant management informed the IAEA team that one of the ZNPP's two operating units was disconnected in the afternoon today due to grid restrictions. The same unit 5 was disconnected also on September 1 – the day of Director General Grossi's arrival at the site – due to an internal electrical failure but it was reconnected the following day.

One reactor is still operating and producing electricity both for cooling and other essential safety functions at the site and for households, factories and others through the grid, the IAEA said.