Concerns about an accident at one of the war's most sensitive sites have been reduced due to the restoration of power. The head of the UN atomic watchdog warned that Ukrainian workers were under intense pressure as Moscow tried to take control of the plant.
Moscow said it was nationalizing the plant after Ukrainian engineers continued to operate it. The effort is part of a larger attempt to claim that parts of the country are now Russian. The nuclear plant is located in one of the Ukrainian provinces that Putin claimed had been annexed to Russia.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that employees at the nuclear plant were being pressured to sign employment contracts with the Russian nuclear energy company in defiance of the Ukrainian government.
Ukrainian officials have said that Russian soldiers had subjected fatigued staff to harsh interrogations and torture.
Moscow has a military advantage, but also significant leverage over Ukraine. Russian authorities may be able to connect the facility to their grid in order to transfer power to Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine's nuclear power company said this week that Russia had kidnapped a senior official from the plant and that he could be forced to reveal information about Ukrainian personnel working there. The head of the plant had been taken into custody.
On the Telegram messaging app on Saturday, Energoatom said that it had set up a hotline for workers at the plant that could be used to report cases of kidnapping and torture in Russia.
Since the U.N. charter does not recognize illegal annexations, the International Atomic Energy Agency considers the plant to be Ukrainian.
The Ukrainian engineers who have been working at the Zaporizhzhia site under intense Russian pressure have succeeded in restoring backup power. Diesel generators are considered a last line of defense by most nuclear power plants.
The power lines that feed the cooling systems for the six reactor plant were cut for the second time in a week.
It is the first time that a nuclear facility has become a battle zone. Since taking the plant in March, Russia has put troops and equipment there. Russian troops have been shelling nearby cities in order to be aware of the risk of returning fire. A waste storage site has been hit a number of times. The two sides blamed each other for the attacks.
The staff at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant are doing everything they can to bolster their off-site power situation. Even though the nuclear safety and security situation is precarious, the restoration of the backup power connection is a positive step.
Due to the reactor being shut down, the Zaporizhzhia plant is not providing electricity to the grid. It needs its own power source to be safe. Workers have been trying to find a way to give that.
Mr. Grossi said that the process of restarting a reactor would take several days. He said that diesel fuel from both the Ukrainian and Russian side of the front line has arrived and will power the generators for at least 10 days.
The people are Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Mike Ives.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
