ZNPP remains on one power line for a record three weeks - Grossi

The Russian-occupied Zaporizhia NPP, a 6-GW nuclear power plant, has been on a single 750 kV power line since May 7 after the last backup 330 kV line was damaged, and it is unclear when it will be restored, although previously external power supplies were restored within a day, said Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The off-site power situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) remains extremely fragile, with Europe’s largest such site currently relying on just one single power line for essential nuclear safety and security functions compared with ten before the military conflict," the IAEA's Ukraine update said, citing Grossi.

The IAEA said its team at the ZNPP had not identified any nuclear safety issues as a result of a nuclear safety monitoring visit conducted last week, which included a walk-through to measure and confirm stable cooling water levels in the facility’s 12 sprinkler pools and a visit to two fresh fuel storage facilities. However, for most of last week, IAEA officials heard sounds of military activity at varying distances from the ZNPP.

According to the IAEA, three of the nine reactors at the three operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants – Khmelnytsky, Rivne and Yuzhnoukrainskaya – are in scheduled shutdown mode for refueling and maintenance.

As previously reported, Rafael Grossi will visit Ukraine and the Russian Federation next week as part of regular contacts with both sides.

"Grossi will visit Kyiv and Russia next week as part of regular contacts with both sides to ensure nuclear security during the conflict," the IAEA said in a statement released Thursday.

According to The New York Times, citing a Greenpeace report, Russia is building power lines (power lines) in occupied southern Ukraine to connect its captured Zheleznodorozhny nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, to its own grid. The Greenpeace report, which is available to The New York Times, contains satellite images that show that since early February, Russia has been building more than 50 miles (more than 80 km) of power lines and towers between the occupied Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk, along the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.