Report on the accident at the South Ukraine NPP — Energoatom denied this

South Ukraine nuclear power plant, photo: lpnu.ua

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, reported on the accident at the South Ukrainian NPP, due to the fact that the power unit reduced its output by 600 MW. Energoatom denies this.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, citing his own sources, reported on the Facebook page about the alleged accident that occurred at the South Ukraine NPP on Tuesday, September 3.

He noted that the accident affected the increase in power outages in the regions.

«From two independent sources: another accident at the South Ukraine NPP. Two extra queues of outages from Ukrenergo today, because the power unit reduced output by 600 MW. Most likely, it will be repaired next week. Therefore, Energoatom's winning reports regarding repairs completed ahead of schedule should not only please, but also frighten,» Oleksandr Kharchenko wrote.

On the afternoon of September 4, the publication «ZN.ua», referring to its sources on the energy market, wrote about a breakdown at two nuclear power plants, in particular, one of the three units at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant failed, creating a deficit of 425 MW.

NikVesti contacted the press center of the South Ukrainian NPP, but in response to our comment, they provided us with a link to an explanation from Energoatom, which denied the accident and called this information unreliable.

Explanation of the situation from Energoatom, screenshot from the Facebook page

The company notes that in the operation of one of the power units of the station «a remark was detected, after which it was unloaded by 33% of the nominal capacity - in accordance with the regulations due to the presence of a remark.» The «observation» written by the company will be removed only after the specialists of Ukrenergo restore the damaged lines and ensure the possibility of supplying electricity.

At the same time, Energoatom indicates that this is not related to repairs at the station.

«The situation arose as a result of complex transitional regimes that occurred due to enemy shelling of the Ukrenergo infrastructure and were accompanied by significant fluctuations in the parameters of the network (frequency, voltage, current) to which the power units were connected, with the disconnection of the power units from the network,» the company writes.

The accident at the South Ukrainian NPP in July

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On the night of July 16, an equipment failure occurred at one of the energy facilities, as a result of which the energy deficit in the system increased, as reported by Ukrenergo.

After that, social networks began to spread information that one of the power units was disconnected after the accident at the South Ukrainian NPP.

In response to the question of whether there was a breakdown of the power plant at the station, the South Ukrainian NPP stated in a comment to NikVesti that according to the laws of Ukraine «On the legal regime of martial law they cannot provide an official comment on this situation. However, nuclear scientists assured that the power complex is working normally.

At the same time, Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, said that three current transformers burned down at the South Ukraine NPP in three days.

However, during the meeting of the Council on July 19, Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko called the information about burnt transformers untrue and a Russian narrative.

On July 25, in response to an information request, NEC Ukrenergo officially confirmed that current transformers burned down at the South Ukraine nuclear power plant on July 15.

Later, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also confirmed the failure of equipment at the South Ukraine NPP.

During his visit to Mykolaiv, Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko denied the accident at the South Ukraine NPP, calling it a lie and manipulation. He stated that there was an exclusively operational event at the station that did not pose a threat.

In addition, sources in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine confirmed to NV that on the night of July 16, the PANP reactors did not work for almost half a day due to the breakdown of two high-voltage transformers.

It will be recalled that before the start of the full-scale invasion, 15 nuclear power units were operating in Ukraine, of which 9 units are now in the controlled territory at the South Ukraine (three units), Khmelnytskyi (two units), and Rivne (four units) NPPs. Another six units are located at the ZaNPP, which is occupied by the Russian army.