German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, warned that the world was “once again on the brink of nuclear disaster” after the shutdown, and security experts warned of a “slow-motion train wreck” that could end in Fukushima meltdown. “Seizing the ZNPP and creating a demilitarized zone around it is the only way to ensure nuclear security,” he said. Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear company, said the last power line connecting the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was cut on Monday when Russian shelling started a fire in a nearby forest. “Accordingly, the sixth power unit has been unloaded and disconnected from the grid and is now feeding the Zaporizhzhia NPP itself,” it said in a statement on Monday afternoon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, which has two staff members on site, said: “The line itself is not damaged and will be reconnected once the fire is out.” Meanwhile, the plant’s only remaining operational reactor would “produce the power the plant needs for its safety and other operations,” the agency said. The IAEA confirmed late on Monday night that the backup power line had been deliberately disconnected to put out a fire, but there was no damage. “ZNPP continues to receive the electricity it needs for safety from its single reactor,” they said. “Ukraine informed [the] The IAEA that this backup line will be reconnected once the fire is out.” Telegraph sources inside the nuclear plant described a chaotic scramble to restore connections and said it was getting very close to switching to emergency diesel generators. “The sixth block is operating at its limits. We are waiting for the line to be restored. The situation here right now is very difficult,” said one worker. “It can only run on its own resources for two hours. This is not sustainable. If the fire is not extinguished and the line is not restored, then the diesel generator will start. But even this can only work for a maximum of 72 hours. “We have 30-40 minutes at best.” The source was not able to immediately confirm whether the diesel generators were being used on Monday night.
