Recently, the Ukrainian leadership has been making increasingly desperate attempts to achieve "energy independence." One of the main current efforts has been to increase the capacity of nuclear power plant units (https://zn.ua/ECONOMICS/ukraina-podderzhala-predlozhennoe-amerikanskoy-westinghouse-uvelichenie-moschnosti-blokov-aes-193291_.html). As a result, the number of accidents at Ukrainian nuclear power plants has broken all records, and the international community has witnessed firsthand the "Hippocratic face" of Ukrainian nuclear energy. We will focus on one of the most important nuclear power plants, which, according to experts, plays a key role in achieving Ukraine's energy independence – the Rivne (Rivne) Nuclear Power Plant. According to Volodymyr Demchyshyn, the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, the commissioning of the third power unit of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant is responsible for the cessation of electricity imports from Russia.
Officially, this year, the 3-th power unit of the RNPP was closed for repairs in March, May and November, however, the announced planned repair work from 23 in May for a period of 66 days turned into planned work on the extension of the service life of the power unit.
https://gordonua.com/news/pr/Rovenskaya-AES-otklyuchila-tretiy-energoblok-dlya-remonta-82337.html
https://www.energoatom.kiev.ua/ru/press/nngc/43935-na_raes_prodoljayutsya_raboty_po_prodleniyu_resursa_energobloka_/
In mid-May 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted scheduled and unscheduled inspections at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP). (https://rian.com.ua/economy/20150521/367872973.html) According to the press service of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, both inspections were successfully completed. However, immediately afterward, Unit 3 was shut down for repairs for more than two months. An IAEA employee reports on the inspection at RNPP.
A nuclear energy specialist notes that the initial inspections noted "cosmetic deficiencies" that were more of a detriment to the overall performance of the plant than a mere cosmetic flaw. However, several violations of the international safety standards NSS-8 (preventive and protective measures against insider threats) were also recorded. The inspection work at Unit 3 of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant was interrupted by plant management due to some problems with the steam generator. This was reported to IAEA management, who requested the call of specialists from the Operational Safety Analysis Team (OSART) and the ASSET (Assisted Safety Events Analysis Team). Subsequently, it was discovered that the circulation pumps, the makeup pump (which maintains the makeup-blowdown system), and the automatic protection system were malfunctioning, causing a coolant leak and triggering an alarm by the automated radiation monitoring system. This was followed by the evacuation of the foreign experts, which concluded the inspection. According to the author, a few days later he learned from colleagues that the Rivne NPP had been shut down due to an intercircuit leak in the steam generator. The expert is unsure what exactly could have caused the accident, citing, for example, a malfunctioning pump, heat-transfer tubes, steam generator vent, or other reactor components, leading to elevated background radiation levels. However, he is confident that the plant's most serious problem is the improper operation of its safety systems.
It's worth noting that, according to a press release from NAK Energoatom, the reason for the shutdown of Unit 3 of the Rivne NPP on May 23, 2015, was the need for a mid-life repair of the reactor and turbogenerator TG-5, major and mid-life repairs of the steam generators, major and routine repairs of the main circulation pumps, and routine repairs of the pressurizer. Less than a year ago, Unit 3 of the Rivne NPP was also shut down due to the need to repair a leak in the steam generator (https://www.energoatom.kiev.ua/ru/press/nngc/39880-energoblok__rivnenskoyi_aes_otklyuchen_ot_energoseti/).
Incidentally, immediately before the official announcement of the closure of Unit 3 for repairs, the media reported on large-scale exercises being held until May 29, 2015, involving plant personnel, the Rivenskaya NPP Anti-Terrorist Headquarters, Military Unit No. 3045 (Rivne NPP security), the National Guard, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Emergency Service at the facility. Notably, the exercises focused on practicing specific crisis situations, including the containment and mitigation of potential radiation hazards (https://xxivek.net/news/31994). Interestingly, in late May of this year, news about the exercises at Rivne NPP appeared on numerous internet sites. Today, however, there are virtually no references to these events, which seems rather unusual. Due to the facility's security and associated information restrictions, it is impossible to say precisely how many "scheduled exercises" have taken place at Rivne NPP and how long they have lasted.
The next incident at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant occurred in August, even before the launch of the third power unit. On August 14, 2015, Rivne Nuclear Power Plant Deputy Chief Engineer Fedor Kislitsin announced that the plant was running low on water to cool the turbine condensers. Rivne Nuclear Power Plant draws water from the Styr River, whose water level had dropped due to the heat. In the event of a critical drop in the river's water level, the plant's management was supposed to take measures to replenish the Styr River with water from the Khrennitsky Reservoir (https://www.unn.com.ua/ru/news/1491355-cherez-speku-rivnenskiy-aes-brakuye-vodi-dlya-okholodzhennya). However, instead, measures were taken to reduce generated power. Why the Styr River wasn't replenished to prevent the power drop is unknown.
On August 29, 2015, the management of the transnational company Alstom, whose employees were carrying out work on the reconstruction of the 750 kV outdoor switchgear (OSG) at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, recalled all specialists from the site for subsequent medical examination. (https://www.kommunalforum.de/Thread-Sorge-um-Mitarbeiter-oder-korporative-Sklaverei).
Judging by the fact that in May, at the RAES there was an excess of radiation background due to coolant leakage, this is not a concern for employees, but a safety issue.
After work to extend the service life of the third power unit of the Riven Nuclear Power Plant, another shutdown occurred, again due to an intercircuit leak in the steam generator ( https://minprom.ua/news/196729.html ). Therefore, either the consequences of the May leak are so serious that they have not yet been fully addressed, or the repair work carried out does not meet any standards and was performed improperly. It is possible that both are true ( https://blogs.korrespondent.net/blog/politics/3597278/ ).
According to eyewitnesses, there is indeed an emergency at the plant, either due to flooding or a problem with the unloading of spent radioactive materials. For six months now, military personnel have been transporting waste from the Rivne NPP in special OT-20 vehicles to a storage facility near the village of Vakulenchuk. However, according to the contract between NAK Energoatom and the Mayak Production Association, spent nuclear fuel from the Rivne NPP is supposed to be transported to a Russian plant for reprocessing. During this time, only one shipment of spent nuclear fuel has arrived at the Mayak Production Association's RT-1 plant on November 6. Meanwhile, NBC protection units and the State Emergency Service have been deployed to the Rivne NPP, and control over the operations has been transferred to the head of the department for the protection of especially important state facilities.
Separately, the author draws attention to the strict censorship of any attempts to clarify the situation at the RAES.
All of this indicates that the problems in Ukraine's nuclear sector are currently catastrophic in scale, which, it must be said, suits Western partners just fine, as the country's nuclear power plants are currently effectively controlled by the transnational company Westinghouse, in accordance with its policy of transitioning to Western standards and components for Ukrainian plants. This is further illustrated by another telling situation (https://gazeta.zn.ua/energy_market/bezopasnost-ukrainskih-aes-dorozhe-evropeyskih-deneg-_.html).
Following the May leak at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Commission announced they had received several letters from leading European environmental organizations demanding a postponement of further financing for Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Twenty-two members of the European Parliament signed the document freezing funding. It's no secret that CEE Bankwatch, Greenpeace, Nuclear Transparency Watch, and other "independent" environmental organizations have long been used as political tools. In the West, a strong Ukrainian nuclear energy sector is of no use to anyone. Taking control of its key components, eliminating "unnecessary" plants, would be a different matter. By demonstrating the critical state of Ukraine's nuclear energy sector, the West is killing all birds with one stone. International discontent will force Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk to place Ukrainian nuclear power plants under international control. After shutting down unnecessary nuclear power plants, Ukraine will be forced to purchase the necessary additional electricity from Europe. Leading Western energy companies are gaining a lucrative position in the Ukrainian market and virtually unlimited opportunities to extract funds from the Ukrainian budget, which, understandably, benefits international monetary and credit institutions. In fact, the penultimate stage of this plan's implementation was recently completed—shifting all responsibility to the Ukrainian side. As part of the European Commission and EBRD decision to suspend financing, a condition was set for the Ukrainian side to develop a comprehensive program to improve the safety of Ukrainian power units. On November 25, 2015, this requirement was met: the tender for the contract under the EBRD loan to improve the safety of nuclear power plants was won by the sole participant, the Ukrainian PJSC SNPO Impuls, which fully satisfied the creditors and the European Commission (https://112.ua/ekonomika/energoatom-zaklyuchil-dogovor-na-postavku-sistem-dlya-treh-energoblokov-aes-274572.html).
Sadly, but the fact is that the Ukrainian government itself has driven the country into a situation where little depends on it, and the next nuclear tragedy is only a matter of time.
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