Ukraine on Sunday has made an announcement about the shutdown of the sixth and last reactor in operation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe and is currently occupied by Moscow forces.
As per the statement released by the Ukrainian operator Energoatom, “Today, September 11, 2022, during the night, unit number 6 of the power plant was disconnected from the electricity grid.
The operator added that, “Preparations are underway for its cooling.”
As per Energoatom, a cold shutdown is “the safest state” for the reactor, which for three days had been the only one to produce the electricity required to cool the nuclear fuel & to ensure the safety of the site.
The plan to shut it down was taken when the site’s external power supply was restored “last night” with one of the transmission lines.
As per the warning released by the Energoatom, “In the event of further damage to the transmission lines connecting the site to the electrical system – the risk of which remains high – the internal needs (of the site) will have to be provided by generators running on diesel.”
In its statement, Energoatom reiterates its call for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant, the only way, according to the operator, to ensure its security.
Ukraine and its allies have expressed growing concerns about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia plant. For weeks, confusion has reigned around the site of the power plant, hit by multiple strikes of which Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other.