The global nuclear watchdog says that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been disconnected from its last remaining main power line and is being run through a reserve line.
The agency said on September 3 that the Ukrainian plant “has once again lost the connection to its last remaining main external power line, but the facility is continuing to supply electricity to the grid through a reserve line, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed at the site today."
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The comments came a day after a team of inspectors from the IAEA arrived at the plant in southern Ukraine to assess the safety of Europe's biggest nuclear energy plant.
The IAEA's mission is meant to help secure the facility as Moscow and Kyiv continue to trade blame for shelling at and around the nuclear plant.
Russian forces seized the plant early in the war following their invasion of Ukraine, but Ukrainian staff continue to operate the facility.
"Less than 48 hours after Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on [September 1] established the presence of the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) at the facility in southern Ukraine, the agency's experts were told by senior Ukrainian staff that the ZNPP's fourth operational 750 Kilovolt (kV) power line was down. The three others were lost earlier during the conflict," the IAEA added.
Grossi, who led a 14-member team to the plant, said late on September 2 that six inspectors remain at the nuclear plant and that he plans to issue a report on the safety of the Russian-held site next week, even as heavy fighting was reported near the facility.
Grossi said the IAEA’s on-site presence will be reduced to two staff members next week and that they would remain there for the longer term.
Separately, in a rare acknowledgment, Ukraine's military on September 2 said it had conducted strikes against Russian military positions in around the town of Enerhodar, near the location of the nuclear plant.
"It has been confirmed that in the region around the towns of Kherson and Enerhodar, precise strikes by our armed forces destroyed three enemy artillery systems as well as a warehouse with ammunition and up to a company of soldiers," the general staff said without providing details.
Both sides in recent weeks have exchanged claims that the other has shelled the power plant, raising fears of a nuclear disaster and spurring the IAEA to demand that the Russian occupying force allow its inspectors access to the site.
In a daily briefing on September 3, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that Ukrainian forces attempted to seize the plant the previous night, "despite the presence of representatives” of the IAEA at the facility.
The ministry said a Ukrainian naval force of more than 250 troops attempted to land on the coast of a lake near the plant in southern Ukraine at around 11 p.m. local time on September 2.
It said Russian forces foiled the attack with strikes from military helicopters and fighter jets. The report cannot be independently verified.
There were no immediate comments from the Ukrainian side.
Russian-installed local officials said the situation at the plant was calm early on September 3.