Should an unstable, bankrupt country operate nuclear power plants.

[another_liberal]

Ukraine currently relies on nuclear instalations for about half of its electrical power. With coal fired plants now unable to find enough fuel, those electricity producing nuke plants are more important than they have ever been; however, the aging reactors are beginning to suffer costly breakdowns, such as those described in the following article.

Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, is in southeast Ukraine on the banks of the Dnieper River.


Emergency shutdown at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant


One of the reactors at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has automatically shut down after a glitch. This is the second halt in operations in recent weeks at the plant in Ukraine’s southeast, which covers at least one fifth of the country’s power needs. “Unit 6 at Zaporizhzhya 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,” the plant’s official website says stressing that radiation at the facility is equal to the natural background, which is 8-12 microroentgen/hour.

This accident took place on Sunday morning at 05:59 am local time (03:59 GMT). Causes are still being investigated, while the Energy Ministry hopes to restart the unit in the coming days. The remaining five reactors continue to generate an estimated 4,530 MW. The previous incident at Zaporizhia NPP happened on November 28, but the fact went public five days later, when Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk revealed it during the first session of his new cabinet. At that time the shutdown was caused by a short circuit. As a result, Unit 3 was switched off and put into maintenance to resume operations on December 5.

Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe and also the fifth largest NPP in the world. It is on the bank of the Kakhovka water reservoir on the Dnieper River, some 200 kilometers from the rebel Donetsk region. Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants constitute a huge part of the country's energy system. Fifteen nuclear reactors produce at least 50 percent (over 13 megawatt) of all electric power in Ukraine. Zaporizhia NPP alone produces up to 22 percent of all electricity generated in the country. Two Zaporizhia NPP reactors are to be decommissioned for complete overhaul in February 2015 having operated for 30 years. Unit 1 will be out for maintenance for 129 days.

The new accident at Zaporizhia NPP might deteriorate the catastrophic energy shortage Ukraine is currently witnessing, as its fossil power plants have run out of coal. National energy company Ukrenergo has launched emergency power cuts all over the country to help sustain energy. Consumers are experiencing blackouts that last for hours every day. Ukrainian enterprises are forced to limit their energy consumption and to switch to night production. Kiev authorities have been refusing to buy coal from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as they don’t want “to sponsor” the rebels, and instead turned to other countries. Those attempts were unsuccessful due to general inability to pay or the fact that the supplied coal didn’t fit Ukraine’s energy production.

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Read more, and watch related video, at: http://rt.com/news/218199-ukraine-nuclear-reactor-shut/