IAEA confirms shutdown of power unit at South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant last week

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed the shutdown of a power unit at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (South Ukraine NPP) last week due to a transformer malfunction.

Source: press service of the IAEA

Quote: "Last week, the IAEA team at the South Ukraine NPP reported that its unit 2 was temporarily shut down following the actuation of electrical protections due to a transformer problem in the 330 kV open switchyard, located outside the NPP site."

As a result of a short circuit, there was damage to the ceramic insulator, causing an oil leak that caught fire due to an electric arc.

After the electrical connection was restored, the reactor was restarted and power supply to the grid resumed after about 17 hours, reaching full power just over 24 hours after the shutdown.

Earlier, Oleksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Centre, reported three transformers had caught fire at the South Ukraine NPP, which led to a temporary deterioration of the power outage situation. 

Subsequently, during a question hour in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko stated that the information about transformers at the South Ukraine NPP catching fire was false and a Russian narrative.

Quote: "The Center for Countering Disinformation has already stated that this is all fake, and interestingly, this information initially appeared on Russian channels," he said. 

"Then it made its way into the Ukrainian media space. But it's not true; the power grid is functioning. The question is why this [spreading of misinformation -ed.] is being done," Halushchenko continued. 

Following this, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak submitted an inquiry about the situation at the NPP to Ukrenergo, Ukraine's national energy company, and received a completely opposite response

For reference: In Ukraine, the IAEA experts are present at the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), as well as at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP).

Support UP or become our patron!