The Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye, under Russian control, was reconnected to the grid on Saturday, almost three days after it completely lost its external power supply following an attack on an electrical substation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced, AFP informs, according to Agerpres.
Electricity was restored after repairs were made to a backup power line, thanks to a local ceasefire, the IAEA said on social network X.
During the blackout, the nuclear plant, Europe's largest, had to rely on backup diesel generators to provide power to cool the reactors, the IAEA explained.
This was the 19th time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the Ukrainian power plant lost its entire electricity supply from the external grid.
This outage was caused by an attack on a power station on Wednesday evening.
“Lasting almost three days, this blackout was one of the longest the site has experienced, highlighting the extreme fragility of the power grid,” the IAEA pointed out.
The UN agency has previously said that no leak of radioactivity has been detected and that radioactivity levels remain normal.
The plant still needs to repair its main line, which has been disconnected since March 24.
Zaporozhye, which is close to the front line in southern Ukraine, came under Russian control in the early days of the invasion.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of risking a nuclear catastrophe through attacks near the plant.
