One of the main power lines is back in operation at Zaporizhia NPP, says IAEA

By: News Team

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One of the four main power lines at the Russian-owned Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been repaired and is once again supplying electricity to the plant from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, it said. on Saturday the UN nuclear watchdog.

Although all six reactors at Zaporizhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, have been shut down, the fuel they contain still needs cooling to prevent a potentially catastrophic meltdown. This means that the plant needs electricity to pump water through the core of the reactors.

The availability of power in Zaporizhia has been a source of great concern after the last main line went down and then three standby lines that can connect it to a nearby coal -fired power plant were disconnected.

That caused the plant to enter the so-called “island mode”, in which its last operational reactor provides power, although this operation is not sustainable. A week ago a standby power line was reconnected, allowing that reactor to shut down as well.

“With the reconnection of the main line yesterday afternoon, the three standby power lines are again kept on standby,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant site that has damaged buildings and caused power lines to be disconnected.

“Although the power situation at the plant has improved over the past week, the overall situation at the plant, located in a war zone, remains precarious,” the IAEA said.

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