International specialists came to the South Ukraine NPP to teach how to diagnose equipment breakdowns

The WANO NPP mission has started work at the South Ukrainian NPP. Photo: PAES

The support mission of the Paris Center of the World Association of Organizations Operating Nuclear Power Plants (WAO NPP) has started work at the South Ukraine NPP. Specialists will teach how to diagnose problems in the operation of the station.

This was reported in the Pivdennoukrainsk City Council.

Experts from the electric power company Électricité de France, specialists from nuclear power plants in Great Britain, and representatives from China, who specialize in the application of artificial intelligence in data analysis, visited the NPP.

It is stated that nuclear plant workers will be trained in advanced methods of analyzing trends, events and defects, which allow early detection of potential problems and prevention of serious incidents.

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«The mission will help to better diagnose problems at the initial stages in order to improve the maintenance and repair procedures of the equipment. It is extremely important for the stable operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, so that the power units work without breakdowns and incidents,» said Viktor Savorona, deputy general director of the VP PAES branch for quality and management.

It is also noted that the mission provides not only training sessions, but also the development of specific recommendations for improving the operation of the NPP.

We will remind that at the South Ukraine NPP on Tuesday evening, October 22, power unit №1 was disconnected from the network for approximately four hours. The reason for the shutdown was an erroneous signal to the unit's protection systems, while the reactor's safety systems were not activated.

Earlier it was reported that on October 2, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant concluded an agreement for the construction of engineering protection of critical elements of the plant for 595 million hryvnias.

The accident at the South Ukraine NPP in July

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 Ukraine NPP.

In response to the question of whether there was a breakdown of the energy facility at the station, the South Ukraine NPP in the comment NikVesti stated 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 Halushchenko 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 on July 15, current transformers burned down at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

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 currently 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.