The International Atomic Energy Agency issued a statement today reporting that all three of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant all have access to the national grid again following a complete loss of offsite power earlier this week. “The IAEA team of experts present at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) reported already yesterday that the facility’s external power connection had been re-established, a day after it was disconnected,” the statement said. The IAEA still considers the Zaporozhye plant as Ukrainian, even though Russia’s Rosatom has taken over ownership and management of the plant. “Ukraine today also confirmed to the IAEA that the three other nuclear power plants—Rivne, South Ukraine and Khmelnytskyy—had been re-connected to the grid and were operating to generate electricity for the country’s needs,” the IAEA statement reported further.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters yesterday that Moscow is doing its best to resolve the problem with Kiev shelling the Zaporozhye NPP, as quickly as possible, and to ensure the station’s safety, “and doing it without delay,” reported TASS.
Moscow was observing certain signals that there was a growing understanding in the IAEA of the need to make an operational decision on the protection zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Ryabkov also noted that the IAEA Secretariat was aware of the complexity and severity of the situation around the plant. “In addition to contacts with Kiev, the Secretariat’s management, as we understand it, is also engaged in a dialogue with the leadership of some Western countries. We hope that this dialogue will help convince the regime of Zelenskyy to stop its criminal actions against the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant,” Ryabkov said.
