Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Endures Longest Emergency Power Outage Amid Ukraine-Russia Dispute

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest and currently under Russian occupation, has been operating on emergency diesel generators for five days due to a loss of external power, marking the longest blackout since the war began. Ukraine and Russia blame each other for attacks on the power supply lines that led to the outage, with Ukrainian officials attributing the damage to Russian shelling and Russia accusing Ukraine of striking the grid. Experts and international agencies, including the IAEA led by Rafael Grossi, have raised serious safety concerns, emphasizing that diesel generators are a last resort and that the plant must maintain power to cool reactors and prevent a meltdown. Greenpeace Ukraine warned that the crisis could be exploited by Russia to reconnect the plant to the Russian-occupied grid, potentially restarting reactors. The situation is especially alarming due to the plant's history of safety threats during the conflict, including shelling and repeated blackouts, and its critical role in Ukraine's electricity supply prior to the war. Talks between the IAEA and Russian officials have taken place to address nuclear safety, but the external power supply remains unrecovered, sustaining fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.