Power back on at Chernobyl, IAEA says

Power has been restored at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

“Ukraine has informed IAEA that external power had again today been restored to the (Chernobyl) Nuclear Power Plant after line had been again damaged ‘by the occupying forces’,” the UN’s atomic watchdog tweets.

#Ukraine has informed IAEA that external power had again today been restored to the #Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after line had been again damaged “by the occupying forces”. Staff had restarted operations to reconnect the plant to the electricity grid. https://t.co/WIgM7U7Vmh pic.twitter.com/NnBLAVetOu

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) March 14, 2022

“Staff had restarted operations to reconnect the plant to the electricity grid.”

Energy operator Ukrenergo had earlier said the power line supplying the Chernobyl plant had been “damaged by the occupying forces.” Power to the site was lost on March 9, over two weeks after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24 and seized the power station in the first days of the assault.

Power was partially restored Sunday, but officials said Monday morning that the line had been damaged before being repaired again Monday.

The IAEA says 8 reactors out of 15 in Ukraine are operating, including two at Zaporizhzhya, the site of an intense firefight earlier this month that raised fears of nuclear fallout.