Russia has once again damaged the Chernobyl power line, Ukraine’s nuclear agency

A high-voltage power line at the former Chernobyl nuclear plant has been damaged once more by Russian forces, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said Monday, just one day after Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced that power had been restored following a Russian attack last week that cut the site off from the power grid.

“Reliable power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is critical in terms of nuclear safety,” Ukraine’s nuclear agency stated.

Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian utility that repaired the power line over the weekend, said in a Facebook post Monday that “the occupants” had damaged it again. The company stated that its employees would have to return to the site to complete the restoration.

Officials are concerned that a power outage at the closed plant and surrounding area will jeopardise cooling systems for the more than 20,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that remain at the site.

On February 24, Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Since then, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international organisations have expressed concern about the closed plant’s conditions.

The Ukrainian regulator informed the IAEA on March 13 that staff at the Chernobyl power plant were no longer performing repair and maintenance duties on safety-related equipment, according to an IAEA statement. This was partly due to exhaustion from working nonstop for nearly three weeks, as some of the guards and technical personnel had not been able to rotate out of the facility since the day Russian troops took over.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned that the situation violates a safety pillar established by the agency that employees working in power plants should be able to make decisions “free of undue pressure.” The nuclear agency of Ukraine issued the alert on Monday, following a Russian attack last week that disconnected the Chernobyl power plant from the nation’s power grid. Electricity is required by the plant for cooling and ventilation of stored materials. The IAEA, on the other hand, stated that it did not see a “critical impact on safety.”

Ukraine is heavily reliant on nuclear energy, with 15 nuclear reactors operating in four power plants. It is also home to Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is also under Russian control.

The threat of nuclear disaster has been a source of concern since the beginning of the Russian invasion, with the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster still fresh in European minds.

During the 1986 disaster, an explosion and fires damaged the plant’s fourth reactor, which lost its concrete lid, causing radiation to spread into the air. According to the World Nuclear Association, approximately 350,000 residents were evacuated, and a “exclusion zone” was established. The remaining three reactors remained operational; the last one to do so was shut down in 2000.