(Reuters) -Repair work has started on damaged off-site power lines to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following a four-week outage, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Saturday.
The work began after local ceasefire zones were established to allow the work to proceed, Grossi added in a post on social media platform X.
The Russian-appointed management of the plant confirmed the maintenance work, saying it was made possible by “close cooperation” between the IAEA and Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
The Russian Defence Ministry will play a key role in ensuring the safety of the repair work, the plant said on Saturday via its Telegram channel.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in the first weeks of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
It is not currently generating electricity but relies on external power to keep the nuclear material cool and prevent a serious accident.
(Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru and Filipp Lebedev in London; Editing by Jan Harvey and Sharon Singleton)
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