The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine was disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid for the first time ever on Thursday due to a fire in a transmission line, causing a blackout in the region.
The plant has been the site of frequent shelling, and Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed leader of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, blamed the transmission line damage on a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine has blamed shelling at the ZNPP on Moscow, but Russia has little reason to attack the plant since it has been under Russian control since March. Russian troops are stationed at the plant, which is being run by Ukrainian operators.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said this week that it renewed a request to inspect the ZNPP, and the nuclear watchdog is hoping its inspectors can visit the plant before September 5. The IAEA is currently working out the details with Ukraine and Russia.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that the IAEA mission to the ZNPP will have more authority than usual. IAEA inspectors could investigate the attacks on the plant and potentially attribute them to the responsible party. Russia has been calling for an IAEA inspection and has said that the inspectors will be able to see who has been shelling the plant once they’re there.
Yeah, according to Holy Saint zelensky of Cocaiini the Russians shell themselves so hard that they had to temporarily close down the plant. Western stenographers took note. He actually said that.
Thereby cutting most of the ukraine, (except liberated parts) off the grid as well but as the English say, give it to Putin! Don’t wipe your@ss!
Expect Zelensky to do everything he can to disrupt and delay the IAEA visit, because there is no question the shelling is Ukraine’s doing. Even if the visit happens, expect the spin to continue – it brings to mind the absolutely libelous slander campaign the US media launched prior to the Iraq invasion against the UN weapons inspectors; “in the pocket” of Saddam, “blind to reality”, blah-blah, blah-blah.
The visit that Russia asked the IAEA for.
Wonder what’s really happening.
With all the delays of the IAEA inspections they were losing credibility like all other international organizations under the fists of the United States, including the UN.
Wild Speculation.
I get the impression that the reactor uses some of its own power to maintain its cooling and other critical functions. Presumably, it would be very dangerous to “flip the switch” that turns off western Ukraine without first bringing in backup generators to resume power to critical systems in the event of a shut-down. Even then, it would be highly irresponsible to proceed without performing a comprehensive test of the backup configuration before considering the real thing.
This was a test. It was also a warning.
Reactors need electricity to run, but they don’t alter output very quickly so need to be connected to the grid. The Chernobyl incident was due to a test run awry where they were testing whether the spinning down generators had enough energy to run the plant until backups took over or something like that. It didn’t go well. Until this gets sorted out the responsible thing to do is turn off those reactors, get them as cold as possible.
If it weren’t a colossal tragedy for Ukrainians who are dying for NATO/US neocons/neolibs, this would be a daily dose of comic relief. Do people still think IAEA inspectors will tell them what’s actually happening? I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.