The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected from the Ukrainian grid, the country’s nuclear agency Energoatom said on Monday, saying it was the result of a fire caused by Russian shelling.
“As a result, power unit No. 6 was unloaded and disconnected from the grid, which currently supplies the ZNPP's own needs," the agency said in its statement.
Energoatom is working on restoring the connection, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday.
“There is a chance to restore the power transmission to the Ukrainian grid,” the spokesperson added, saying he could not detail timings as the situation remained tense.
The spokesperson noted that the situation was not considered an emergency.
“The power unit No.6 is still working and cooling all the rest of nuclear reactors. So basically it maintains the power of the plant itself,” the spokesperson explained. “When the generators turn on, usually automatically, this situation would be considered emergency. For now, it is not.”
The Russian controlled military-civilian administration of the city of Enerhodar, where the power plant is located, would not say whether the power plant had been disconnected from the Ukrainian grid, but said the situation at the plant was normal.
The Energoatom spokesperson also said disconnecting the plant from the Ukrainian grid would not make connecting the plant to the Russian grid any easier, due to the damage to transmission lines.
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