Yuzhnoukrainska NPP: Kyiv's strategic decision to change nuclear fuel supplier

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

The energy complex of Ukraine will include four nuclear power plants. One of the operating ones today is the South Ukrainian NPP.

Nuclear power plant as part of the energy complex

NPP is part of the South Ukrainian energy complex. When creating the project of the complex, it was envisaged that it would provide electricity to three regions of Ukraine - Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In addition to nuclear power plants, the complex includes a hydroelectric power station (hydroelectric power plant) and a storage power plant (pumped storage plant).

The use of three types of enterprises allows you to generate electricity that is optimal in terms of cost. At the time of a decrease in consumption (mainly at night), the units of the pumped-storage station operate in pump mode, pumping water into the upstream, and at times of peak loads (toward evening) - in turbine mode, giving additionally generated electricity to the network. At the same time, nuclear power plants and hydroelectric power plants operate in a quiet mode, without peak power discharges, which is dangerous for turbines. Pronounced load peaks are typical for this southern region of Ukraine, which is why a new type of energy complex was designed for it, similar to European,successfully working.

Station construction and technical parameters

The site where the South Ukrainian NPP is located was chosen in the Mykolaiv region. In 1975, the construction of the station and the satellite town of Yuzhnoukrainsk began. Starting from 1982, all three million-plus blocks were put into operation one by one. The construction of the fourth unit was frozen in 1989, and the question of its construction was not raised again.

Yuzhnoukrainska NPP operates on VVER-1000 reactors. They were made in Leningrad, at the Izhora Plants enterprise. The manufacturers of turbines, reactor plants and generators were enterprises in Leningrad and Kharkov.

The nuclear power plant reached its full capacity in 1989. Today, the generated capacity of nuclear power plants (almost 18 billion kWh per year) is enough to provide 10% of the consumption of all electricity in Ukraine. For the regions of Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odessa, this is almost 96%. In terms of installed capacity (3000 MW), Yuzhnoukrainska NPP is the second after Zaporozhye in Ukraine.

Situation with fuel elements (TVEL)

The source of nuclear fuel for all nuclear power plants in Ukraine (including the Yuzhnoukrainska NPP) were (and still are) fuel rods manufactured by TVEL Group of Companies in Russia. A nuclear reaction takes place in them with the release of heat transferred to the coolant.

Already since 2000, Ukraine has been trying to change the monopoly supply of Russian nuclear fuel by signing a contract with Westinghouse Electric (USA).

A site for experimental workSouth Ukrainian NPP was chosen. American fuel assemblies were installed in all three units of the station as a partial replacement for Russian TVELs.

In 2012, damage to American fuel assemblies on Unit 3 was discovered. The operation of the elements on the first and second blocks continued.

Since 2000, two Russian TVELs have been handed over to Westinghouse Electric, it is in their likeness that fuel elements for the Yuzhnoukrainskaya nuclear power plant are manufactured in the USA.

In September 2014, after an audit of all American components in operation, the contract with Westinghouse Electric was extended until 2020.

TVEL Group remains the supplier of nuclear fuel for the remaining three nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

Under the Russian contract, the Russian Federation is responsible for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Who will deal with the disposal of American assemblies is not yet clear, as they have not yet found an answer to the question of who is responsible for the safety of the "mixed" installation of nuclear elements at the reactors of the Yuzhnoukrainskaya nuclear power plant. For reference: the Czech Republic, having gone through a similar path with the United States in the supply of nuclear fuel for its nuclear power plant, abandoned this idea and works on Russian fuel rods.

South Ukrainian NPP: accident

In January 2015 (on the night of the 15th to the 16th), a fire spontaneously broke out at the NPP throughput transformer. The fire covered an area of 100 square meters. The reason, according to preliminary data, was the depressurization of the case, which caused an oil leak and, as a result,short circuit.

Fortunately, after the fire was successfully extinguished, the measured radiation background turned out to be normal.