War between Ukraine and RussiaDossierThe Ukrainian industrial site, which became a Russian military base, suffered a “total failure” on the night of Friday, December 1st to Saturday, December 2nd. Power was eventually restored.
The Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia power plant, which was in the hands of Russian soldiers, was “on the verge of a nuclear accident” on the night of Friday December 1 to Saturday December 2 due to a temporary power outage, the operator alerted the Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom.
“Last night there was a total failure at the Zaporizhzhia power plant,” Energoatom said on Telegram, adding that power was restored a few hours later, around 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Two power lines supplying the power plant “were interrupted,” one of which was “de-energized during an airstrike,” the operator explained.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said in a statement that power had been “temporarily withdrawn overnight” from the plant, making this the eighth power outage of its kind since the conflict began.
The failure of one of the two lines appeared to be due to an incident that occurred “far from the power plant,” the IAEA said in a new press release, without providing further details. “The latest external blackout to date is a new reminder of the uncertainty of nuclear safety and power plant safety, which can be affected by events far from the site itself,” Rafael Grossi, Director General of the IAEA, was quoted as saying in the press release.
“The (Russian) occupying forces do not care about safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” accused the operator’s president, Petro Kotin. “They will continue to create dangerous situations and blackmail the whole world with a nuclear and radiation accident,” he concluded.
To update : at 1:47 p.m., with the addition of the second IAEA communiqué.