By KYIV. Jan 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The backup power supply to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) was restored on Frida, evening after repairs to the 330 kilovolt (kV) line, which was disconnected last week due to damage caused by shelling, were completed, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.
“The repair work of this last functioning external back up line – delayed by shelling in recent days – ensures that off-site electricity for essential nuclear safety and security functions can still be provided if the plant again loses connection to the 750 kV main external power line," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
At the same time, he said that the facility’s supplies of electricity from the grid continue to be fragile.
The IAEA recalled that Connection to the Ferosplavna 1 back-up line was lost on 29 December due to damage caused by shelling on the other side of the Dnipro River from the ZNPP site.
The agency had reported a day earlier that Grossi was continuing consultations with Ukraine and Russia aimed at agreeing and implementing a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP as soon as possible.
The IAEA also said that the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhia (ISAMZ) team reported worrying levels of fatigue in the staff arising from the effects of increased working hours and additional shifts and the stress from the close exposure to the ongoing war.
"The courageous staff working at the ZNPP continue to perform their duties professionally, determined to maintain the safe operation of the plant," Grossi said.
Separately, Ukraine reported to the IAEA on January 6 that electrical power production levels at the country’s three other NPPs were fully restored following a decrease in output after the missile attacks in the last days of 2022.
The IAEA continues to prepare to deploy soon IAEA teams on a continual basis to the four other Ukrainian nuclear facilities, the Khmelnytsky, Rivne and Pivdennoukrainska NPPs, as well as the Chornobyl site, as agreed as agreed in Paris in December by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Grossi.
