The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been cooling off on emergency diesel generators for the ninth day after an external power line was cut. This was announced by its Russian leadership, quoted by "Reuters".
It specifies that the backup power supply is sufficient for now, but the resumption of regular power supply through an external source - the Dneprovska line - is impossible due to Ukrainian shelling.
Ukraine, for its part, stated that the Russian shelling is preventing the restoration of external power supply.
Due to the intense drone and artillery war around several huge Soviet-era nuclear power plants in Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly warned of the risk of a major nuclear accident.
IAEA: Zaporizhzhia NPP in Ukraine has been without external power for six days.
The plant has been under Russian control since the first weeks of the war, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of shelling.
The last remaining external power line to the Zaporizhzhia The nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, was shut down during fighting on September 23.
Power is needed to pump water around the plant to cool the reactors and spent fuel. Radiation levels are normal, the IAEA and Russia said.
"Europe's largest nuclear power plant has been without external power for more than a week, the longest such outage in more than three and a half years of war," said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
The plant's Russian management assured that emergency generators were sufficient for now and that only some of them were being used. All equipment is functioning normally.
The Zaporozhye NPP has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000, V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing uranium 235. All reactors are currently shut down.
The IAEA has warned of shelling around the Zaporozhye NPP
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of such attacks
The risk is that without any power supply - external or provided by emergency generators - the nuclear fuel, which is located only 500 km from the site of the world's worst nuclear accident - the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, will not cool down and is at risk of melting.
"The current state of the reactor units and the spent fuel is stable, as long as the emergency diesel generators are able to provide enough power to maintain basic safety-related functions and cooling", Grossi explained.
"It is extremely important to restore external power supply," he stressed.
Russian forces seized the plant in 2022, shortly after President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. It has been under Moscow's control ever since.