Zaporizhzhia NPP loses power from main 750 kV line overnight: on verge of another power outage

The temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) lost power from the main external 750 kV power transmission line on the night of 9-10 August.

Source: Energoatom, the national nuclear energy company

Quote: "After that (losing power – ed.), we had to switch the ZNPP to the only available 330 kV backup line, the disconnection of which threatens [us] with the loss of external power (power outage).

Following this scenario, the main threat to nuclear and radiation safety is that the 4th power unit of the ZNPP is in hot shutdown mode, which the occupiers are using in violation of the terms of the operating reactor licence of the Ukrainian regulator (State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine)," Energoatom emphasised.

Taras Tkach, the acting executive director of SE NNEGC Energoatom, added that if the ZNPP loses the external power completely, the main station’s circulation pumps will be turned off, so the power unit will switch to natural circulation mode. "In this case, it is necessary to urgently cool it down if there are no cooling pumps".

Energoatom added that such a mode is difficult for the plant to operate, its duration being limited by its design, and this can lead to the failure of the power unit’s main equipment.

"We would like to point out that further Russian occupation of the ZNPP, the plant’s management by an illegitimate and untrained Ruscist leadership, which are not responsible for the facility’s nuclear and radiation safety, is constantly bringing the ZNPP closer to disaster.

That is why the ZNPP must be immediately returned to the full control of the legal operator, NNEGC Energoatom, with the subsequent return of the plant to normal operating mode and resumption of the facility's nuclear and radiation safety," Energoatom said.

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