VIENNA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant temporarily lost all off-site electrical power on Thursday evening, highlighting the continued precarious nuclear safety situation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on social platform X on Thursday.
This was the second such outage in less than a week and the 14th time the plant has lost off-site power since the start of the Ukraine crisis, according to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
Connection to the grid was restored after about 40 minutes, the IAEA said. However, the immediate cause of the outage has not yet been determined. An IAEA team stationed at the site is investigating the incident and continues to monitor conditions at the plant.
Grossi emphasized that repeated losses of off-site power underscore the continued precariousness of nuclear safety at the facility.
The incident follows a similar event earlier in the week. On Tuesday, the Zaporizhzhia plant experienced a loss of off-site power that lasted roughly 90 minutes.
The plant, one of Europe's largest nuclear facilities, has been under Russian control since March 2022. ■
