'Emergency repair' reported at Ukraine nuclear power plant

[bananas]

Source: CNN

A short-circuit has impaired part of a nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, causing power shortages in parts of the country but putting no one in danger of radiation, the country's newly appointed energy minister said Wednesday.

The incident at the plant in Zaporizhya happened last week, and emergency repairs should be finished by Friday, the Energy Ministry said.

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A ministry spokeswoman told CNN that the incident happened Friday but was announced only on Tuesday because people started asking about the power shortages.

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Zaporizhya is Europe's largest nuclear power plant, according to EnergoAtom. It has been operating since 1984, with the third unit brought online in 1986. It has six power units altogether, with a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts.

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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/world/europe/ukraine-nuclear-power-plant/

[bananas]

1. Accident at largest nuclear power plant in Europe revealed by Ukraine PM

http://rt.com/news/211047-nuclear-plant-accident-ukraine/

Accident at largest nuclear power plant in Europe revealed by Ukraine PM
Published time: December 03, 2014 11:15
Edited time: December 03, 2014 14:22

There has been an accident at a nuclear plant in the southeast of Ukraine, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has revealed during the first session of his new Cabinet.

A minor accident occurred at Zaporozhskaya nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, last Friday, according to the facility’s website. A reactor was switched off and put to maintenance as a result.

The incident was not made public until Wednesday, when PM Yatsenyuk asked the energy minister to report on what happened and how the ministry is handling the situation.

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The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters it had no comment to make on the Zaporoshskaya accident so far.

An international convention, adopted after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, obliges countries to notify the IAEA of any nuclear accident that can affect other countries.

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[bananas]

2. Usually, they pretend nothing happened, then lie about how serious it is.

They've already pretended nothing happened until they were forced to reveal that something happened.
Learn to read between the lines.
You just can't trust the nuclear industry.

[FBaggins]

5. Actually... that's backwards

Usually nothing did happen... but others rapidly lie to us about how serious it is.

In this case, as in most cases, it wasn't serious at all. There was a fault in electrical transmission equipment keeping the unit from supplying power to the grid... so it had to shut down (just like any other generator when it can't send out the power it's generating). It shut down normally and was ready for service as soon as the transmission equipment was back in place.

In this case... the fault is not all with poor/sensationalizing reporting. A good deal of it belongs with the Ukrainian Premier who for some reason (likely ignorance) chose to call it an "accident"... which should be used to refer to a 4+ event on the INES scale.

This one might have been a "1"... but likely wasn't reportable.

[bananas]

3. Here is everything we know about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine

http://www.cityam.com/1417604825/here-everything-we-know-about-nuclear-power-plant-accident-ukraine

Here is everything we know about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine
by Catherine Neilan
December 3, 2014, 11:08am

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The news agency Interfax Ukraine is reporting that the problem occurred at bloc No 3 - a 1,000-megawatt reactor. It is expected to start functioning again on December 5.

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Back in August, Greenpeace warned that the six-reactor Zaporizhia plant was vulnerable to “direct bombardment” if caught in the conflict, and that its reactors were not protected from weapons.

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Physicist Bohdan Sokolovskyi has also previously warned about the safety of the plant, saying it was the “most problematic in Ukraine”.

Zaporizhia is Ukraine's sixth largest city. Here it is on a map:

Also, here is an interactive map that shows where incidents of violence have occurred in Ukraine since the conflict first started (H/T The Interpreter)

<snip map which doesn't paste on DU but has lots of markers near Zaporizhia so go look at it>

Here is what people are saying on Twitter:

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#FastFact Back in 1986, it took Gorbachev almost 3 weeks to break silence on Chernobyl accident pic.twitter.com/7mBjTuWVx9

— Russian Market (@russian_market) December 3, 2014

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[Hectoris]

4. the second Chernobyl is round the corner now

How can anybody trust the safety of nuclear industry of the country, where active combat actions are conducted now, and where rulers try to leave the very fact of the incident at Zaporizhya NPP (BTW, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe) unrelated?! Kiev dares to violate even the international convention, adopted after Chernobyl disaster, which obliges all countries to notify the IAEA of any nuclear accidents!
Well, to all seeming Ukrainian authorities are absolutely unable to control situation in own country. At this rate the second Chernobyl is round the corner now...