A Russian-appointed official in the part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhya region it controls said on Monday that the Zaporizhya nuclear power plant had gone into standby mode and was running backup electricity generators.
Vladimir Rogov added that the station was “completely” disconnected from any outside power supply after Ukraine disconnected the power line it controls.
Anatoly Kortev, secretary of the city council of Zaporizhia in Ukraine, said work had been underway since the early hours of Monday morning to restore electricity to the city.
He went on to say that electricity “was partially cut off in Zaporizhia due to an emergency situation at one of the electrical installations”.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have strengthened their defensive positions in and around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country, ahead of an expected counterattack in the region.
Russian forces have had firing positions above some of the nuclear power plant buildings for months.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
The station is located on the outskirts of the city of Energodar in southeastern Ukraine. The power plant has been designed since the times of the former Soviet Union and its construction started in 1980. The power plant contains 6 reactors called “hydro-hydro-power VVIR-1000V-320 reactors”. The reactors are cooled with water and their neutrons are also quenched with water. They operate with uranium 235, whose radioactive period is estimated at more than 700 million years. Its sixth reactor was commissioned in 1995. It is the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest power stations in the world. Each of Zaporizhia’s six units has a net capacity of 950 MW, or a total of 5.7 GW covering 20% of Ukraine’s electricity consumption.
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