A record shutdown caused serious concern about the safety of the largest six -reactor station in Europe, the article said.
Emergency generators provide the operation of cooling and safety systems after the last power line was damaged on Tuesday at 16.56, there are no signs of its restoration, journalists emphasized.
General Director of Magate Rafael Grossy called the situation “deeply alarming” on September 24, and on September 25 met with an illegitimate president of the aggressor country of Russia Vladimir Putin, but they did not solve the problem.
Western experts and Ukrainian officials fear that the Kremlin deliberately creates a crisis, trying to strengthen control over the station, and is preparing to go to a highly -risk step – to launch at least one reactor, despite the military conditions.
The Ukrainian member of the government said that “Russia uses the nuclear power plant as a bargaining coin,” and the Greenpeace expert called the situation “a new critical and potentially catastrophic phase.”
European regulators after an accident in Fukushima in 2011 determined that nuclear power plants can work without external power up to 72 hours. There was no excess of this period, Ukrainian sources emphasize.
The Russian Federation captured ZAES in March 2022. The reactors, once supplying 4 million households with electricity, were transferred to the “cold stop” mode for security reasons.
The station has repeatedly become the topic of negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Putin. Trump hinted that the United States could take control of it, while the Kremlin declare intention to restart all the reactors and connect them to the Russian energy system – which is real only in peacetime.
At this point, ZASS lost external food nine times due to the shelling of Ukrainian energy facilities by Russian troops. The last 750-kilowed line passed through the Dnieper, and Ukraine agreed to supply energy for security.
This time the damage occurred on the Russian side, about a mile from the station. Russian operators said that repairs are “complicated by shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” and Ukraine denies shelling in the nuclear power plant, emphasizing that this is too dangerous.
Magate received information from Russian operators that the diesel was enough for 20 days. At the same time, Grossy emphasized: the lack of external nutrition “increases the likelihood of a nuclear accident.”
Now seven out of 18 available generators are cooled by reactors, the publication notes. If they refuse, nuclear fuel can overheat for several weeks and lead to melting the active zone, the authors of the article indicated.
On the basis of satellite images, Greenpeace claims: Russia has already laid 200 km of the new power line from the occupied Mariupol, which would restore the power supply of the station and present it as “salvation”.
Other pictures demonstrate that in the summer the Russians built a dam within the ZAES, creating a smaller but controlled reservoir that can allow at least one reactor and say that only the Russian Federation is able to ensure the operation of the station, Media notes.
The Russian head of the ZAES Yuri Chernichuk said a week ago that the integration of the station into the Russian energy system is “at the final stage.” The launch of the reactor during the war would be unprecedented, emphasizes the media.
The senior nuclear expert of Greenpeace Ukraine, Sean Bernie, called on Rafael Grossy to intervene, directly declare to the Russian government to “abandon the plans for restarting reactors, and clearly indicate: they are solely responsible for the nuclear security crisis.”
After the meeting of Putin and Grossy on Thursday, not one publicly mentioned ZAES. Putin only said: “We will do everything possible to support your work,” and Grossy described negotiations as “timely and important”.
Context
The military of the Russian Federation occupied the ZAEC in March 2022, since then it has been under control, and the sounds of military operations are heard in the station. Over the years, the station was completely disconnected several times from the network, there were fires, drones fell.
The Russians actually control the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which, however, does not produce electricity – all six power units are turned off. The Russians could not configure the equipment of the station, they wrote in the Ukrainian Energoatom.
At the ZAES is the Magate Mission. In September 2023 and in September 2024, the Magate General Conference adopted resolutions in which it called for Russia to the “immediate conclusion” of its personnel from the territory of ZAES.
Ukraine insists on withdrawing Russian invaders from the station. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that while the Russian military is located on the ZAES, “the world remains on the verge of a radiation disaster.”
