KYIV -- The Chernobyl nuclear plant has lost power again after Russian forces damaged a high-voltage power line to the plant for the second time, Ukraine's national energy company, Ukrenergo, said on March 14.
The damage occurred not long after electricity supplies had been restored to the facility by a Ukrenergo crew after the line was damaged the first time.
The company said in a statement that the line, which also supplies power to the town of Slavutych, was damaged again by Russian forces after the Ukrenergo repair crew fixed it.
The decommissioned power plant, the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters, was fully cut off from the electrical grid last week and the plant lost power after the line was cut the first time.
That outage put at risk some 20 tons of waste that must be constantly cooled to stop radiation leaking from the plant, which lies some 100 kilometers from Kyiv.
Ukrenergo did not say if all external power supply to the plant had been lost as a result of the most recent damage but demanded access to the area to carry out repairs.
Emergency diesel generators were turned on after the emergency shutdown last week to power systems that are important for safety.
Ukrenergo emphasized that Chernobyl “is an important facility that cannot be left without a reliable energy supply." The power supply for the residents of Slavutych also depends on the power line to the plant.
Russian forces occupied the still-radioactive site soon after invading Ukraine on February 24.
