Accident at nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye, Ukraine

[Larry]

(Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday an accident had occurred at the Zaporizhye nuclear power plant (NPP) in south-east Ukraine and called on the energy minister to hold a news conference.

"I know that an accident has occurred at the Zaporizhye NPP," Yatseniuk said, asking new energy minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn to make clear when the problem would be resolved and what steps would be taken to restore normal power supply across Ukraine.

News agency Interfax Ukraine said the problem had occurred at bloc No 3 - a 1,000-megawatt reactor - and the resulting lack of output had worsened the power crisis in the country. Interfax added that the bloc was expected to come back on stream on Dec. 5.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-ukraine-crisis-power-idUSKCN0JH0ZV20141203

[Volshe]

My heart wrenched when i read that... Thanks goodness, it seems there is no threat to health or for the environment:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-ukraine-crisis-power-minister-idUSKCN0JH12M20141203

[andrewfi]

The incident was, it seems, nothing to do with power generation - nothing connected with the nuclear scary sciency stuff. The issue was about the power being transferred to the grid after generation.

[NS1]

Power is currently being shut off 1-2 hours every evening. Maybe in part by this, as they do have distribution issues.
Also likely to huge cash shortage, taking every advantage to save money.

[GriffinCO]

Never noticed power outages when I was there. Supposedly happen on Friday and I just left on Monday. So I don't think it's a huge issue.

[Larry]

An update on the original story:

Ukraine turns off reactor at its most powerful nuclear plant after 'accident'

Ukraine shut down one of the six reactors in its most powerful nuclear power plant today – for the second time in a month – because of an apparent electrical malfunction.
 
The Zaporizhia nuclear plant’s website insisted that radiation levels in the area remained normal after the sixth reactor was “disconnected from the grid by the generator’s internal defence mechanism”.

An official statement said the plant was “operating at 40 per cent power… The reasons for the outage are being investigated”.

A short-circuit in the same power station’s third reactor contributed to power cuts  across Ukraine earlier this month. The Zaporizhia plant, in the south-east of the country, is Europe’s largest and the fifth most powerful in the world. It generates 40 per cent of Ukraine’s nuclear power and switched on its first reactor in 1984. The Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, noted the previous outage during one of his Cabinet sessions, urging ministers to tell the truth about “the accident”.

His words did not go unnoticed. The term “accident” was, after all, the word used by the Soviet newspaper Izvestia when it reported on the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine – four days late – on 30 April 1986. By then, most of the residents of towns neighbouring the plant had been evacuated – weak, stunned, and later, largely forgotten.

The parallels with today’s conflict-torn Ukraine are obvious. But Sergei Shimchev, a press officer for the Zaporizhia plant, said it would be an “major exaggeration” to describe either recent event as a significant nuclear incident.

“The latest shutdown would be zero-rated on the International Nuclear Event Scale,” said Mr Shimchev. “In peacetime, outages of this kind would be ignored and absorbed, but now the loss of one million kilowatts of power becomes a big issue.”

Irregular and infrequent coal supplies from industrialised zones caught up in the conflict has reduced energy production in Ukraine. About half of its coal-fired power stations are said to need emergency repairs, and reserves are at about one third of their usual winter levels. Many towns and cities have experienced blackouts though, so far, lights have been kept on in the capital, Kiev.

While fighting in the east is at its lowest level for some time, the crisis has taken on a new dimension following a series of bomb attacks by pro-Russian rebels in cities controlled by the Ukrainian military. This has led many to question the defences of the Zaporizhia plant, as it is relatively close to the conflict zone.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-turns-off-reactor-at-nuclear-plant-after-accident-9947540.html

[Texan77]

Question, Was there a leak in Ukraine plant?

http://rt.com/news/218807-ukraine-nuclear-plant-leak/

Ukraine buys fuel from Westinghouse. Russia complains that it is unsafe.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-ukraines-import-us-nuclear-211926861.html;_ylt=AwrSyCWmt6NU.HkA.cv_wgt.

 

[andrewfi]

Question, Was there a leak in Ukraine plant?

http://rt.com/news/218807-ukraine-nuclear-plant-leak/

Ukraine buys fuel from Westinghouse. Russia complains that it is unsafe.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-ukraines-import-us-nuclear-211926861.html;_ylt=AwrSyCWmt6NU.HkA.cv_wgt.

Ain't no claims,  it is unsafe. Westinghouse (no longer a US company) Are having to learn how to adapt their product to suit the Ukrainian reactor. There have already been operational issues. The supplier will learn how to formulate the fuel supply but they ain't there yet. Whether they should be doing such testing on an operational reactor is a question that will likely be seeking an   answer over the next few days.

[Slumba]

Question, Was there a leak in Ukraine plant?

http://rt.com/news/218807-ukraine-nuclear-plant-leak/

Ukraine buys fuel from Westinghouse. Russia complains that it is unsafe.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-ukraines-import-us-nuclear-211926861.html;_ylt=AwrSyCWmt6NU.HkA.cv_wgt.

Ain't no claims,  it is unsafe. Westinghouse (no longer a US company) Are having to learn how to adapt their product to suit the Ukrainian reactor. There have already been operational issues. The supplier will learn how to formulate the fuel supply but they ain't there yet. Whether they should be doing such testing on an operational reactor is a question that will likely be seeking an   answer over the next few days.

Do you have a source for that? 

The VVER in is a PWR design - the exact same design that Westinghouse refurbed several years ago, in Czech Republic.  And Westinghouse's PWR experience dates back to the 1950s.

My brother in law who works in Westinghouse's nuclear power division spent a lovely ~2 years there, he really loved Czech Republic and was paid very well for his time there.

[andrewfi]

Slumba,  go do the reading. There's no secrets and Google works as well for you as for me.

[Texan77]

About what kind of company Westinghouse is and Westinghouse history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Electric_(1886)

At bottom of page they recap Westinghouse history.

Westinghouse has a very complicated history. Notice on the first line I copied that the Nuclear division was sold to Toshiba in 2006. Then in 2010 Toshiba moved Westinghouse (Toshiba) head quarters to Pennsylvania.

Thank Anderw for bringing this up. It was a very interesting reading.

 1998 – sells remaining manufacturing asset, its nuclear energy business, to BNFL which sold it to Toshiba in 2006 which still operates it as Westinghouse Electric Company today
 1998 – CBS Corporation creates Westinghouse Licensing Corporation (Westinghouse Electric Corporation) subsidiary to manage the Westinghouse brand
 1999 - buys Outdoor Systems for $8.7 billion and King World Productions for $2.5 billion.[3]
 1999 – sells itself to Viacom, Inc.
 2005 – Viacom is split into two companies on December 31, with a new Viacom being spun off of the company, and the "old" Viacom being renamed CBS Corporation thus reviving Westinghouse's last name prior to sale and reversing the 1999 Viacom-CBS merger.
 2010 – The Westinghouse Electric Company (Toshiba) opened new headquarters in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania where it preserves the industrial legacy of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

[Donhollio]

Slumba,  go do the reading. There's no secrets and Google works as well for you as for me.

110% agree with Fee Fee on this one Slumba!

  You need to pay attention and not ask for proof of where he pulls his knowledge from. So stop being silly. Better yet stop being so goddamn lazy and unthinking, or just click on his link he has with every post. There's enough bad information on everything from A to Zed. 

[Volshe]

Better yet stop being so goddamn lazy and unthinking, or just click on his link he has with every post.

 

I did actually, not sure how come i haven't done so before... Andrew, pls add an option to join with fb or twitter, if possible, as joining there is 

[andrewfi]

Better yet stop being so goddamn lazy and unthinking, or just click on his link he has with every post.

 

I did actually, not sure how come i haven't done so before... Andrew, pls add an option to join with fb or twitter, if possible, as joining there is 

Join what?

Don and others,  please don't continue to think that the only source of information in the world is the Internet,  it isn't. Furthermore, unlike some of you I do not go scouring the Internet for 'instant knowledge', some of us have a body of knowledge built up over years. There is no way to offer hyperlinks to the content of my mind.

[Volshe]

Join what?

 Légion étrangère of course, what else? 

[Volshe]

had to post this, sorry 

[Texan77]

This is very funny. 

[Volshe]

This is very funny. 

Thanks! 

[Annushka]

Perhaps, this Chernobyl-2.
I did not want to focus on the forum from Novorosii was information that recorded excess radiation background of more than 16 times.
Since I'm in front of a happy retirement was state inspector in State sanitary and environmental surveillance. And then my business in the field of environmental design. I can say: you will not know what is actually in the media. Who will tell the truth and for what?

Contrary to claims management Zaporizhzhya, at the station there was a major radiation leak, according to English site RT citing went online report of the State Service for Emergency Situations of Ukraine. According to this document, the radiation level exceeds the permitted limit 16 times.

http://russian.rt.com/article/67122

[Annushka]

had to post this, sorry 

Elevated levels of radiation more scary for Europe. Because in the first release of Zaporizhzhya NPP wind was west component.

[Annushka]

Accordingly overdue question: how you potency after visiting Ukraine, Gentlemens?



Ukraine at the '' Miss Universe 2014 'will present' 'Bride of war' 'with a black veil.

http://www.segodnya.ua/culture/stars/kostyum-predstavitelnicy-ukrainy-na-konkurse-miss-vselennaya-poluchil-nazvanie-nevesta-voyny-579891.html

Two years ago, Ukrainian teacher said to the blog LL: "The youth of today in Ukraine is no longer the Soviet equivalent. You continue to tell Christmas story or you enable Analytics, Gentlemens?

[GriffinCO]

Perhaps, this Chernobyl-2.
I did not want to focus on the forum from Novorosii was information that recorded excess radiation background of more than 16 times.
Since I'm in front of a happy retirement was state inspector in State sanitary and environmental surveillance. And then my business in the field of environmental design. I can say: you will not know what is actually in the media. Who will tell the truth and for what?

Contrary to claims management Zaporizhzhya, at the station there was a major radiation leak, according to English site RT citing went online report of the State Service for Emergency Situations of Ukraine. According to this document, the radiation level exceeds the permitted limit 16 times.

http://russian.rt.com/article/67122

Quoting that garbage from the Russian Times about there being a nuclear leak at the Zaporozhye is just plain STUPID.  Especially as they are the only ones "reporting" it.  My brother is a nuclear engineer and I have a background in nuclear operations too.  Unless you have a better source or happen to be more knowledgeable than either of us, then don't bother posting about this.

Some things are funny.  Acting gleeful or making jokes about a nuclear accident around a civilian population is not. 

[Donhollio]

 Better not eat any fruits or vegetables from UA there Anna, if its not contaminated with radiation from the nuclear leak, then it may be the local Ukrainians adding poison to the fruit on it way to Russia.   

 Soon we will see monuments to Putin, and references to the great leader 

[krassavchick]

Some things are funny.  Acting gleeful or making jokes about a nuclear accident around a civilian population is not.

This!

[Volshe]

Some things are funny.  Acting gleeful or making jokes about a nuclear accident around a civilian population is not.

Indeed.

As per the video i stumbled at and shared, here is why it was even more funny to me (see my very first post on the forum)

I found the forum by chance, started reading threads, somehow ended in Chat room first and it's only now that i am posting here 
I was interested in Westerner's perception of Russians because i am often asked if i am one... In the beginning i was explaining: "No, albeit i am Russian-speaking, but myself i am from a tiny mountainous kingdom in the midst of magical Balkan peninsula blah-blah"
the  people would start giving me those looks
so with time
when asked "are you Russian"
i started replying (in strong pan-slavic accent )"You have problem with that?"