Ukraine Says Europe's Largest Nuclear Plant, Held by Russia, Has Lost Outside Power for the 16th Time This Year and Is Running on Emergency Diesel Generators
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe's largest, held by Russian forces since early in the war — lost its outside electricity supply in the early hours of Sunday, Ukraine's nuclear energy company Energoatom says.
At 02:36, the plant lost power from the last remaining working line that connected it to Ukraine's grid, the 330-kilovolt Ferrosplavna-1 line. An attempt to reconnect the line automatically failed, and the plant's own needs are now being met entirely by backup diesel generators. Energoatom says this is the 16th time the plant has completely lost its external power supply since the beginning of 2026.
"A loss of power at the plant poses a critical threat to nuclear and radiation safety," the company said. Running in blackout mode creates a direct risk that essential safety systems and the systems that cool the nuclear fuel will fail if the diesel generators break down or run out of capacity, potentially leading to a radiation accident.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says the outage is the 27th such event during the conflict, and that the cause and location of the latest disconnection are not yet known. The agency's team at the plant has been told the site holds enough fuel to run a limited number of its emergency generators for around two weeks, and its director general Rafael Grossi stresses the importance of restoring the plant's connection to the grid and building up more diesel fuel reserves.
Energoatom says nuclear safety at the plant can only be restored if it is fully returned to Ukraine's control and to its lawful operator. The plant and its safety have also sat at the centre of American-led efforts to end the war, with Washington backing the IAEA's push to keep the station safe while its future is decided.
For ordinary families across Ukraine and eastern Europe, each blackout is the same danger returning: a nuclear station cooling its fuel on truck-fuel generators, with about two weeks of diesel standing between normal operation and disaster.
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