South Ukraine NPP unit shut down
The IAEA has confirmed the shutdown of a power unit at the South Ukraine NPP last week due to a transformer malfunction.
Image for illustration purposes.
Ukraine, Kyiv: 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. It was announced that 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. Earlier, Oleksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Centre, announced that three transformers had caught fire at the South Ukraine NPP, leading to a temporary deterioration of the power outage situation.
Due to a short circuit, there was damage to the ceramic insulator, causing an oil leak that caught fire due to an electric arc. After restoring the electrical connection, 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.
During a question hour in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that the information about transformers at the South Ukraine NPP catching fire was false and a Russian narrative. However, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak submitted an inquiry about the situation to Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, and received a completely opposite response. IAEA experts are present in Ukraine at the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), as well as at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP).
Source: pravda.com.ua
#nuclear power plant#South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant#transformer malfunction#Ukraine