A short circuit in a generator was responsible for the Nov. 28 shutdown of a power unit at the Zaporizka plant, the largest nuclear station in Europe. Photo: Reuters
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn speaks to the media during a news conference in Kiev, December 3, 2014. Reuters.
Ukraine’s energy minister says a “technical fault” in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has forced reduced production of energy, but poses no threat to public safety.
Homes and businesses throughout Ukraine are now being forced to ration energy. The minister, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, says the state hopes to end the power shut-offs soon.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Officials blame the power shortage on repairs of a damaged generator at the Zaporizka Nuclear Power Plant in the country’s southeast and low stocks of coal caused by fighting in the main eastern mining region.
Mr. Demchyshyn said a short circuit in the generator was responsible for the Nov. 28 shutdown of a power unit at the Zaporizka plant, the largest nuclear station in Europe. The minister said there was no damage to the plant’s reactors, and Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear energy company, released a statement saying that the incident “wasn’t a nuclear or any other kind of accident.”
At an earlier cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk referred to an “accident” at the plant, stirring memories of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Related coverage at World Nuclear News, Guardian, BBC, CNN, Reuters.