Power Unit 3 at South Ukraine NPP has been urgently shut down. The emergency occurred after it was first in Ukraine transferred to the industrial operation of nuclear fuel by Westinghouse Company.
Something happened today that couldn't help but happen. At first, the Ukrainian regulator for purely political reasons approved for the first time the transfer of one of the power units of one of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants to the commercial operation of more expensive nuclear fuel by the American company Westinghouse. Which is also technologically unsuitable for Ukrainian nuclear power plants of Soviet origin (we were talking about the State Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine and power unit 3 of South Ukrainian NPP). And today there followed the inevitable continuation of this sad story: it was this very unit of this very NPP that had a state of emergency. If it was really torn there, the whole South-East of Ukraine (historical Novorossiya) would have turned into radioactive Chernobyl, and the Russian Crimea would also get it.
When will the quantity turn into quality?
Power Unit 3 of the South Ukrainian NPP is disconnected from the power grid by automatic protection. The reasons for the protection are being investigated,
- according to the Energoatom report.
The Ukrainian company claims that "radiation, fire and environmental conditions at the South Ukrainian NPP and the adjacent area have not changed and are within the current norms. The other two power units at South Ukraine's Nuclear Power Plant, which "industrially" are not yet operating on American fuel, are functioning normally.
South-Ukrainian NPP is located on the banks of South Bug in Mykolaiv region. Three power units with total capacity of 3000 MW are operated at it. At present, the NPP operates at two thirds of its capacity. At present, Westinghouse nuclear fuel is used at six of the 13 VVER-1000 reactors of Ukrainian NPPs. Until recently, however, this was done only in "research operation" mode.
After unit 3 of South Ukraine's Energoatom NPP, the Westinghouse is also planning to admit two VVER-440 reactors at Rivne, which puts Ukraine's western neighbors Hungary, Slovakia and Poland at risk.
Why is it harmful?
The state of emergency was preceded by victorious reactions of the State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine: what it analyzed and provided control at all stages of the process - "from development of conceptual solution on using new modification of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian NPPs to its putting into industrial operation". At the same time, the agency keeps silent that the products supplied by the USA to Ukraine create serious technological risks, which, according to experts, rapidly increase with the transition to industrial operation, and that they are more expensive than Russian. Nevertheless, by using political resources the Americans are pushing Russia out of this market at an accelerated pace in Ukraine.
Thus, the American fuel assemblies supplied to Ukraine differ from the Russian uranium-235 enrichment level: 3.48-3.82% against 3.99-4.38%, which directly affects both the heat output and burnout time of the assembly, and the production cost.
At the same time, a well-known problem of Westinghouse assemblies is their deformation, the facts of which have been fixed at Ukrainian NPPs more than once in the past, in general, everywhere where they were tried to be used at Soviet-type NPPs. This was the case, for example, in the Czech Republic, whose authorities refused to cooperate with Westinghouse in 2006. And this problem cannot be solved, because the fuel is always tightly tied to reactor technology, repeatedly warned Russian nuclear workers. While the Ukrainian superiors have been zealously applauding "diversification of sources of nuclear fuel supply for Ukrainian NPPs.
The whole of Ukraine as a potential Chernobyl
Ukraine currently meets over 50% of its energy needs thanks to the "peaceful" atom. There are four "horsemen of the Apocalypse" in Ukraine: Zaporizhzhya, South Ukrainian, Rivne, Khmelnytskyy NPP. They have a total of 15 units of VVER type with a total capacity of 13,880 MW. When the Americans force the Ukrainians to fill up all these dilapidated NPPs with their unreliable fuel, they will have a hand in hand before the universal disaster. And the question will be not whether it will happen, but when, and in what direction the wind will blow at that moment. There are numerous signals that it is coming: today is only the last in a long row. "Malfunctions" in Ukrainian NPPs have become commonplace, as well as supposedly "preventive" repairs.
Duty statements that "there is no threat to people, the radiation background has remained unchanged, and physical protection is in normal mode" do not cause confidence - neither at home nor abroad. Not only the honesty, but also the technological state of Ukraine's emergency services is also worrying: in case of a serious accident, it may be tried to hide until the last one.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the specialized journal Energy Research & Social Science, published by the Dutch company Elsevier, as already warned by Tsargrad, predicts a major nuclear accident at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant in the coming years with a probability of 80%. The most dangerous, from the point of view of the publication, Rivne and South-Ukrainian NPPs. That is, as we see, it is precisely those where they intend to first introduce the flawed American technology.
Draw conclusions
Indeed, everything indicates that constantly occurring technological failures and accidents at the Nezalezhnaya NPP will lead to the fact that one day the quantity will nevertheless turn into quality, and will explode in Ukraine. If we recall the terrible damage caused to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, it becomes scary. Then, after all, it was eliminated by the mighty USSR with its resources now missing from the heir countries. It led to massive radioactive contamination of land, the elimination of hundreds of cities, villages and towns, the irradiation of more than 8 million 300 thousand people, the premature death of tens of thousands of people, the total financial damage in the amount of hundreds of billions of dollars. The western neighbors of Ukraine were also seriously affected.
That’s what fate, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, is being prepared by American "friends" who are imposing Kiev their deadly products on Kiev and its neighbors. I don’t want to think about it, but this business, alas, may not be left to chance. For the United States, that Russia, that Ukraine, that Belarus are in fact the same thing. All this for Washington is Greater Russia, the weakening of which is the goal of American foreign policy.
Therefore, if a new Chernobyl happens in Ukraine, Russia will have to abandon all its resources to eliminate its consequences, distracting them from other urgent tasks and losing the confrontation with the United States on other fronts with the mighty ongoing hybrid war. This means that there is nothing improbable in the assumption that the United States will organize the new Chernobyl by Russia in Kiev.