Ukraine Shuts Another Nuclear Reactor

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - A unit at Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine was taken offline last week due to generator problems.

The country's National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine (Energoatom) stated: "Unit 6 at Zaporizhia NPP was disconnected from the network by the automatic system that prevents damage to the generator. The reactor is running at 40 percent of nominal power".

This is the second unscheduled unit shutdown in recent weeks. In early December it was reported that Unit 3 at the plant automatically shut down due to damage to a transformer. The company said that both units are now back up and running but the shutdowns have raised concerns over safety at the Zaporizhia plant, which has six VVER 1000 reactors with a combined generating capacity of 6,000-megawatts (MW). The plant supplies more than one fifth of Ukraine's power and is one of four nuclear plants in Ukraine operated by Energoatom.

Ukraine's government has denied reports in pro-Russian media that there has been a radioactive leak at the plant. The country is embroiled in armed conflict with Russia, which helped annex the Crimea region last year. The conflict has led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians and the near collapse of the country's electricity system as thermal power plants run out of coal.

In September, Industrial Info reported that Ukraine had declared a state of emergency regarding electricity and was being forced to import coal from South Africa to keep its coal-fired power plants going after rebels bombed its coal mines. For additional information, see September 12, 2014, article - Ukraine Faces Electricity Blackouts.

In November, Toshiba-owned Westinghouse Electric Company (Monroeville, Pennsylvania) was selected by Energoatom to supply a passive hydrogen control system for the VVER Units 1 and 2 at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The Westinghouse Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner solution, named NIS-PAR, is designed to provide additional measures for ensuring containment integrity in the unlikely event of both a design-basis accident and beyond-design-basis accident. The engineering, design, supply and installation of the passive safety system is scheduled to be completed by January 2016. For additional information, see November 14, 2014, article - Westinghouse Wins Ukraine Nuclear Safety Contract.

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