A Russian soldier stands near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
From BZ/afp
According to the operator, the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, which is controlled by the Russian army, was completely disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid on Thursday.
As the Ukrainian operating company Energoatom announced in the online service Telegram, the last two reactors in the plant that were still working were “completely” taken off the grid. This was “the first time in the history of the plant” happened.
In the past few weeks, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has come under fire several times, fueling fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Both warring parties blame each other for the shelling.
The plant, located not far from Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula, has a total of six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors, capable of powering four million homes. The Russian army captured the power plant on March 4th.
According to experts, decoupling from the power grid also jeopardizes the absolutely necessary cooling of the reactors. Energoatom suspects that Russia wants to connect Zaporizhia to Crimea’s power grid.
For weeks, Russia and Ukraine have been accusing each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which the Russians captured in early March. The information provided by both sides is often not independently verifiable.
The state-owned Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Enerhoatom has repeatedly accused the Russian occupiers of preparing to connect the areas to the Russian power grid. The shelling of high-voltage lines is a diversionary tactic to first de-energize the occupied areas and then gradually synchronize them with the Russian grid.