Accident at Ukraine nuclear plant forces reactor shutdown but ‘no danger’
Ukraine’s energy minister has said a technical fault at a nuclear power plant in the south has cut power production but he insisted the incident poses no danger.
Volodymyr Demchishin said that the fault at a power-generating unit No 3 in the Zaporozhiya plant led to a drop in electricity production, and that normal output will be restored by the weekend.
The plant’s operator said earlier this week that a problem had occurred with a power-generating unit, but concern was provoked yesterday after Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk referred to an unspecified incident during a cabinet meeting.
State nuclear power station operator Energoatom said damage to a transformer in a power-generating unit last Friday provoked an automatic shutdown in the system.
The reactor in the unit has been put into cold shutdown, making chain reactions impossible, Energoatom said.
Energoatom said the risk status at the affected plant, as assessed according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, is currently below zero, meaning there is no significance for safety.
The plant in the city of Enerhodar is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with six power-producing units a 6,000MW generating capacity, accounting for more than one-fifth of electricity production in Ukraine.