Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Restored After Month-Long Blackout
Ukraine’s temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has regained access to external electricity after enduring a month-long blackout.
The Gaze reports this, referring to a post by Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk announced on Wednesday.
Hrynchuk said repair crews successfully restored one of the high-voltage transmission lines supplying power to the facility, ending the plant’s tenth full blackout since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
“Ukrainian energy specialists have restored power to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. This allowed the station to exit the full blackout it had been in for the past month,” Hrynchuk wrote in a Facebook post. “Following the completion of repairs on the 750 kV Dniprovska line, work continues on the 330 kV Ferospavna line.”
The minister blamed the extended outage on Russian occupation forces, who she said continue to systematically shell and damage power lines connecting the plant to Ukraine’s national grid.
“Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukrainian energy workers have repaired the plant’s power lines 42 times,” Hrynchuk noted. “However, the only real guarantee of long-term nuclear safety is the complete demilitarization and de-occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and its return to the full control of Ukraine’s operator, Energoatom.”
The blackout began on September 23, when the last remaining external power line was cut off. Another line had been disabled in May, and Russian forces repeatedly refused to provide safety guarantees for repair teams. Restoration work began on October 18.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that repair operations began last week after localized ceasefire zones were established to allow maintenance crews to safely access damaged lines.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi emphasized that restoring external power was “critical for nuclear safety and security,” and said both sides had cooperated constructively with the agency to enable the complex repairs.
The ZNPP, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Although the plant’s six reactors are currently shut down, the loss of external power repeatedly forced the facility to rely on emergency diesel generators, raising international concerns about the risk of a nuclear incident.
Ukraine and the IAEA continue to call for Russia to withdraw its troops and allow international inspectors unrestricted access to the site.
As The Gaze reported earlier, a Russian missile strike on Zaporizhzhia on August 10 damaged the External Crisis Center of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which is a critical facility for monitoring radiation levels in the region.