Zaporizhzhia nuke plant loses external power due to attack

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has lost its external power supply and suffered a complete blackout following an attack on a substation, the plant's press service announced Thursday. The 330 kV high-voltage transmission line Ferrosplavnaya-1, which supplied power for the plant's on-site operational needs, tripped automatically late Wednesday evening. With off-site power cut off, the ZNPP reactor units switched to backup diesel generators. The equipment operated per design specifications, and no safety system anomalies were registered, the plant said in a statement. On-site personnel are monitoring all equipment operating parameters and have fully enacted all necessary safeguards to keep the reactor units in a stable and safe state, it said. Radiation readings at the ZNPP site and its surveillance zone stay within natural background levels and do not breach official regulatory thresholds, it added. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been notified that this is the 19th time since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that the ZNPP has lost all external grid power.