Ukraine announced on Sunday the shutdown of the sixth and last reactor in operation at the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant.
Located in the south of the country and occupied by Russian forces, it is the largest in Europe.
“Today, September 11, 2022, during the night, at 3:41 a.m. (2:41 a.m. in Paris), unit number 6 of the power plant was disconnected from the electricity grid,” reports the Ukrainian operator Energoatom.
“Preparations are underway for its cooling,” he adds.
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According to Energoatom, a cold shutdown is “the safest state” for the reactor, which for three days had been the only one to produce the electricity needed to cool the nuclear fuel and to ensure the safety of the site.
The decision to shut it down was taken when the site's external power supply was restored "last night" with one of the transmission lines.
“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,” warns Energoatom.
“Compromised” security, “totally unacceptable” situation
In its press release, 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.
VIDEO.
A nuclear disaster in Zaporizhia would threaten the whole of Europe”, warns Zelensky
Ukraine and its allies have expressed growing concerns about the security of the Zaporizhia plant.
For weeks, confusion has reigned around the site of the power plant, hit by multiple strikes for which kyiv and Moscow, the Russian and Ukrainian capitals, accuse each other.
On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported a "total outage of water and electricity" in the Ukrainian city of Energodar, where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located, a situation which “compromises the security of operations”.
“It is completely unacceptable.
This cannot continue,” said the director general of this United Nations (UN) agency, Rafael Grossi, in a statement, calling for “an immediate cessation of the bombardments in the area”.
