During the missile and drone attack by the Russian Federation on Thursday morning, the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, and South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants proactively reduced their output, and one of the units at the Rivne station was disconnected from the grid, reported Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"For the second time in less than two weeks, the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, and South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants have lowered their power levels as a precautionary measure amid large-scale military actions in the country (…). There are nine reactors operating at these plants, all of which have reduced their output. Additionally, one reactor at the Rivne NPP was disconnected from the grid," Grossi noted, as cited in an IAEA statement on the agency's website late Thursday.
It was also mentioned that the nuclear power plants continued to receive external electricity, despite the fact that the Khmelnytskyi NPP lost connection to two of its power lines.
The statement also indicated that two IAEA teams stationed in Ukraine had to seek shelter in a storage facility during an air raid alert.
At the same time, the agency noted that there were no reports of direct damage to the nuclear power plants, but Ukraine reported that strikes had again impacted electrical substations used by the plants for both transmission and receiving electricity for their own needs.
"These substations, identified by the IAEA as critical for nuclear safety, had been damaged during previous attacks, including in August," the agency stated.
The IAEA emphasizes that nuclear power plants require reliable grid connections for both transmitting generated electricity and receiving external power for reactor cooling.
As reported, with the onset of another massive Russian attack on Ukraine, emergency outages were implemented on Thursday morning, and subsequently, regions switched to hourly schedules that involve disconnections mainly up to 14 hours a day depending on the region and the rotation of outages.