One of the reactors of the South Ukrainian NPP has failed. Why are there outages on Tuesday Ukraine was larger and emergency measures were introduced in 15 regions of the country. Prematurely completed repairs at Ukrainian nuclear power plants should not only please, but also frighten, Ukrainian experts believe.
"From two independent sources: the accident at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant again. Two extra lines of disconnections from Ukrenergo today (Tuesday, September 3) — because the power unit has reduced output by 600 MW. Most likely, it will be repaired next week. Therefore, Energoatom's victorious reports on prematurely completed repairs should not only please, but also frighten," Alexander Kharchenko, Managing Director of the Energy Research Center, writes on Facebook*.
According to him, he withdraws the forecasts that he has publicly made over the past couple of days about the normalization of electricity supplies.
"Yes, the high-voltage networks are being restored and will be fine in a couple of days (as far as possible). But "surprises" from Energoatom have not yet been predicted. Therefore, the issue of the quality of repairs is attached to the question of the Minister of Energy on the protection of switchgear of nuclear power plants. If the blocks fly out in the winter, we will all be in trouble..." the expert added.
Earlier, on July 18, Alexander Kharchenko reported that on Transformers were burning in Ukraine due to the heat, which led to the shutdown of two reactors at the South Ukrainian NPP. Energoatom denied the problems at the NPP. However, the IAEA has confirmed the shutdown of at least one reactor.
With retaliatory strikes, the Russian army destroyed 9 GW of power plants in Ukraine — thermal power plants, thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants. The country was left without half of the generation, which imports cannot compensate for. Already in the summer on Ukraine began massive round-the-clock power outages and Energoatom reported on the early withdrawal of NPP power units from preventive maintenance.
On September 3, the operator of the power system of Ukraine reported planned outages during the entire day from one to two queues. In the afternoon, however, in the metropolitan region and two other regions, restrictions were increased to three queues, and around 19.00 Ukrenergo announced emergency shutdowns in 15 regions of the country.
Today, the operator announced that the time and scope of restrictions for September 4 have also been changed due to "reduced capacity at some power facilities."
The Ukrainian edition of the Mirror of the Week, in turn, reports that due to failures at Ukrainian nuclear power plants, two reactors are not operating at full capacity and the total capacity has been reduced by 625 MW. In addition to the VVER-440 reactor at the South Ukrainian NPP, we are also talking about the Khmelnitsky NPP power unit with a capacity of 1 GW.
"Its breakdown occurred in the spring of 2023, due to which 200 MW of power was lost," the newspaper writes.
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation