Back-up power to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has been restored after repairs to the 330 kV line, which was disconnected last week due to damage caused by shelling, were completed. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team currently present at the plant has confirmed the repair work – delayed by shelling in recent days – of this last functioning external back up line. It ensures that off-site electricity for essential nuclear safety and security functions can still be provided if the plant again loses connection to the 750 kV main external power line. The facility’s supplies of electricity from the grid continue to be fragile, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

Though all six reactors at the ZNPP are in shutdown, the plant continues to receive the off-site electricity it needs for essential nuclear safety and security functions from the last operating 750 kV main external power line and now the restored 330 kV back-up line. In case of loss of external power, all the site’s 20 diesel back-up generators are ready to supply the site with the electricity needed for all safety related equipment.

Grossi said he is continuing consultations with Ukraine and Russia aimed at agreeing and implementing a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP as soon as possible. IAEA said the ISAMZ team at the plant has been made aware of exhaustion and stress amongst the ZNPP operational staff. The team reported worrying levels of fatigue in the staff arising from the effects of increased working hours and additional shifts and the stress from the close exposure to the ongoing conflict.

However, the ISAMZ team was informed that, despite the challenges, the plant still has adequate operational staff to maintain the safe operation of all units at the plant’s current level of functioning. “The courageous staff working at the ZNPP continue to perform their duties professionally, determined to maintain the safe operation of the plant,” Grossi said.

The ISAMZ team was also said all nine mobile diesel-fuelled boilers on site are now in operation, providing about 34 MW of heating to the ZNPP and the nearby operators’ city of Enerhodar. An additional 43 boilers are operating throughout the city.

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main Council of the Zaporozhya region administration said on 6 January that ZNPP is the property of Russia, and all attempts of the Ukrainian side to seize it will be severely suppressed. He was responding to an interview with Bloomberg in which Petro Kotin, Director of Ukrainian nuclear utility Energoatom, said that Ukrainian troops should seize ZNPP because, in his opinion, plans to create a security zone around the nuclear power plant do not look realistic. In another interview with German newspaper Bild, Kotin had demanded that the UN send a contingent of Blue Helmets to the plant.

Rogov responded that ZNPP is under the protection of the Russian armed forces, so the presence of UN peacekeepers on the site would change nothing. "The situation at Zaporizhya NPP is currently stable. The facility is under the protection of the Russian National Guard on the internal perimeter and Russian military personnel on the external one. The idea of the presence of UN peacekeepers is senseless demagogy,” he said.