The Minister of Energy on the shutdown of the Pivdennoukrainsk NPP reactor due to shorting: «The accident is a lie, it was an operational event»

Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko visiting Mykolaiv, photo: NikVesti

The Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko denied the accident at the Pivdennoukrainsk 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.

This is how he answered the question of a NikVesti correspondent during a briefing in Mykolaiv on Thursday, August 8.

According to the minister, data on three burned power transformers on Tuesday, July 16, were published on Russian Telegram channels and «threw into» the Ukrainian information space.

«I'm a professional person, I can't just blurt out everything that comes to mind. There is an international classification of nuclear plant accidents. The Chernobyl accident is an accident at a nuclear power plant. That operational event that happened, on a scale from 1 to 7, does not get even a unit, the smallest event. It is marked as 0, which is not an event at all. This is manipulation, the power transformers burned out - this is an outright lie. Because experts understand that if the power transformers at the station burn out, it means that it will not be able to produce electricity. And the question is not whether the working units are working or not, it will not be able to produce electricity. Why this lie was spread should be asked by the competent authorities, who will investigate. There are many such operational events in the power system. Moreover, both at Ukrenergo facilities and generation facilities. This is a technique, unfortunately, it breaks, it happens, said Herman Halushchenko.

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However, it should be noted that the fact of the accident at the PANPP was confirmed by Ukrenergo a few days after that, and the IAEA announced the shutdown of the power unit.

In response to this, Herman Halushchenko stated that such a discrepancy arose because the Ministry of Energy does not publish accurate information with locations that the Russian side can use to attack energy facilities in Ukraine.

«We try not to highlight the names of any objects, both generation and transmission, because this means that there is a weak point in the system at this time. And by naming, we give the Russians a message where it is possible to strike. I stand by the fact that this is a manipulation that has acquired a political color, because I was asked these questions in the Council. Ukrenergo joined this story, so in fact it is already about politics. Already later, the people who posted these fakes began to correct the text fake. The accident is a lie, no power transformer was damaged, that's all. Why is this done? To discredit atomic energy,» the minister summed up.

What happened at the Pivdennoukrainsk NPP?

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 Pivdennoukrainsk NPP.

In response to the question of whether there really was a breakdown of an energy facility at the station, the Pivdennoukrainsk NPP said 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 Pivdennoukrainsk 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 current transformers burned down at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant on July 15.

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

In addition, sources in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine confirmed to NV that on the night of July 16, the reactors of the PANP 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 Pivdennoukrainsk (three units), Khmelnytskyi (two units), and Rivne (four units) NPPs. Another six units are located at the ZaNPP occupied by the Russian army.