Ukraine nuclear plant reconnected to national grid: IAEA

Since being cut off from the grid, the station was relying on its own power supplies to operate essential safety mechanisms. Experts feared that the plant could run out of internal power.

Russian servicemen guard an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world in Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia. (Photo | AP) 

KYIV: Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is receiving power from the national grid once again, the UN's atomic agency (IAEA) said Saturday, after it was cut off from external power, raising the risk of an accident.

The Russian-occupied plant had been cut from the national grid since September due to shelling.

"The restored 750 kilovolt (kV) line is now providing Europe's largest nuclear power plant... with the electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential safety functions," the IAEA said.

Since being cut off from the grid, the station was relying on its own power supplies to operate essential safety mechanisms. Experts feared that the plant could run out of internal power.

Zaporizhzhia was seized by Russian troops in March and shelling around the facility raised fears of nuclear disasters ever since. The IAEA visited the power plant in early September.

Several members of the IAEA team remained inside the territory of the plant on a permanent basis to monitor the situation.