Second power outage at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in October

The outage lasted more than 26 hours between Oct. 21 and 22 “due to unspecified damage on the other side of the Dnipro River.”

This incident follows a similar outage three weeks ago.

Prior to the full-scale Russian invasion, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant had four 750 kV lines and six 330 kV backup power lines, but now it relies on a single line.

“What once would have been unthinkable – a major nuclear power plant suffering repeated off-site power cuts – has become a frequent occurrence during this devastating war,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

“The situation is clearly not getting any better in this regard. The nuclear safety and security situation at the ZNPP remains highly precarious.”

The IAEA has received no reports of damage to the plant, despite daily explosions in the area over the past week. 

The ZNPP has been under Russian occupation since March 4, 2022. In September 2024, the IAEA General Conference called on Russia to immediately withdraw from ZNPP and return control of the plant to Ukraine.

On Sept. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that Moscow was preparing to attack three Ukrainian nuclear power plants later this year.