Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power and runs on diesel backup

Plant loses its last external power line

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which sits beside Enerhodar and is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, lost its external electricity supply on Sunday, 8 November. The Russian-installed plant administration said automatic protection systems disconnected the Ferrosplavna-1 line, a 330-kilovolt link that fed its auxiliary systems, after damage was detected on it. Its six VVER-1000 reactors, with a combined capacity of 6,000 megawatts, are shut down as a precaution, but they still need power for cooling and safety functions. Emergency diesel generators have taken over that load, and staff are keeping operating parameters under control, the administration said in a statement posted on the MAX messenger app. It also said radiation levels inside the plant and in its surveillance zone remain within normal levels.

Diesel reserves and the IAEA warning

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the cut but said that both its cause and its location are still unknown. The agency's information indicates that current fuel reserves would power a "limited number" of generators "for approximately two weeks". Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, stressed the need to restore the connection to the grid and to reinforce diesel stocks so that nuclear safety is not compromised. The main Dnieprovskaya line was disconnected in March after an attack and has not been brought back into service. Accounts differ on when a truce was agreed, with some placing it in June and others in September, when Russia and Ukraine agreed a ceasefire to allow repairs. The IAEA had warned at that point that running out of diesel could leave the plant without the power needed for cooling.

Attacks on the wider power grid

Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid on Saturday, 7 November, left more than 600,000 people without electricity in the Dnipropetrovsk region, electricity provider DTEK said. Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said repair crews were being hampered by constant Russian shelling, and that hospitals and critical infrastructure were relying on generators. The blackout followed shelling on 3 November that damaged infrastructure in the industrial region, which borders active combat areas, along with a wider attack that day on energy facilities across Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced an overnight attack on the Dnipro region on Sunday morning and said outages were widespread across the country. He added a line about the repair effort:

“Repair work is underway in virtually every affected city and community.”

Sanctions push and talks ahead

Zelenskyy called on international partners to tighten sanctions on Russia to limit its capacity to acquire or build more missiles. He argued that if anti-ballistic defences were not enough to protect Ukrainian skies, missiles should be stopped on the production lines, and that the measures should be aligned across Europe and G7 jurisdictions.

The attacks come as Kyiv and Moscow prepare another round of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi, scheduled for the week of 9 November. Zelenskyy's call for coordinated sanctions was made in that context, with the talks set to take place within days of the power cut at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Until the grid connection returns, the plant's cooling depends on diesel supplies.