Ukraine's energy minister says power has been restored at Chernobyl nuclear plant.

[BadGimp]

Source: NYT Europe

non pay wall link: https://archive.ph/mh6XM#selection-311.0-311.82

Ukraine’s energy minister said Sunday that power supply has been restored at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which Russian troops have occupied since late February.

Ukrainian government officials had said Wednesday that damage by Russian forces had “disconnected” the plant from outside electricity, leaving the site dependent on power from diesel generators and backup supplies.

In a post on Facebook, Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Galushchenko said that the plant was no longer on backup power and had resumed operating under normal conditions. He praised Ukrainian power engineers for risking their lives to “avert the risk of a possible nuclear catastrophe.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/world/europe/chernobyl-power-supply.html

[electric_blue68]

1. Errr... Sounding dumb. Wasn't it encased? Or is there more than one there? Der.

[BunnyMcGee]

2. Yes, same thought here

thought it was entirely closed and abandoned years ago.

[electric_blue68]

3. Glad I'm not the only one.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The plant and exlusion zone occupies a huge area and this relates to the spent fuel storage area

Ukraine war: Chernobyl power supply cut off, says energy operator

Published
4 days ago

(snip)

The power is needed to keep 20,000 spent fuel rods cool by circulating water through tanks in the nuclear fuel storage facility near reactors 1 and 3.

There are back-up generators able to do this for a few days. If the main power is not brought back online then there is no risk of an explosion, but the water will begin to gradually evaporate and the vapour may well be radioactive, since it can contain material leached from inside the fuel rods.

But any such vapour should be kept within the building, according to Professor Claire Corkhill of the University of Sheffield, who is familiar with the plant.

"I don't think this would lead to a release of radioactivity because it would take a very long time for the water to eventually evaporate. The spent fuel is kept in a modern building which should be sealed and have structural integrity," she said.

(snip)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60678598

There was some discussion in this thread - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142884873 where I noted about how they are (or at least were) in the process of opening a new spent fuel storage facility within the exclusion zone grounds around Chernobyl to store the spent rods from all of their nuclear plants in that central location - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2885028

They had started testing rod transfers this past fall - https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Transfer-of-used-fuel-to-Ukrainian-facility-set-to

They were ready to go "live" in April before the bottom fell out - https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Ukrainian-used-fuel-storage-in-commissioning

The point of that was to save something like $200 million a year from not having to transport, store, and have their spent fuel reprocessed in Russia, by doing that themselves "in country" instead.

[electric_blue68]

5. Ok, then. Hoo boy. Ty.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. You're welcome.

They are apparently still working on it though (there were apparently 2 lines damaged and both were brought up but then one went down again) -

Efforts continue to restore power to Chernobyl
14 March 2022

The head of Ukraine’s Energoatom told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Sunday that power could be restored to Chernobyl after workers fixed the damaged power line - but on Monday Ukraine's energy company reported it was damaged again "before the power supply was fully restored".


Emergency generators have been providing power at Chernobyl (Image: Chernobyl NPP)

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Energoatom CEO Petro Kotin had told him on Sunday that specialists had fixed one of two damaged lines to the plant so it would be able to deliver the required power to the site. The IAEA said that the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) confirmed on Sunday evening that the power line was fixed and Chernobyl was ready to be reconnected to the grid on Monday.

However in an update on Monday, Ukrainian energy firm Ukrenergo said that "before the power supply was full restored" to Chernobyl and the city of Slavutych, it was damaged again. It was not clear if all the external power supply to the plant had been lost again, but called for "unimpeded and quick access of Ukrenergo repair crews to these lines for inspections and repairs".

The initial news that the power line had been fixed was welcomed by the IAEA's Grossi on Sunday evening as a "positive development as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has had to rely on emergency diesel generators for several days". "However, I remain gravely concerned about safety and security at Chernobyl and Ukraine’s other nuclear facilities," he added.

SNRIU said it was closely monitoring the situation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone ahead of the annual "fire season" when spontaneous fires often occur in the area, still contaminated by radioactive material from the 1986 accident, the IAEA said.

(snip)

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Efforts-continue-to-restore-power-to-Chernobyl

Just to get an idea - here is a map showing the boundaries of the exclusion zone (part of it extends into Belarus) -





Showing a closer view to distinguish the Belarus side of it -



And like parts of the U.S., including here in the Midatlantic area (particularly the NJ Pine Barrens), there is a seasonal "wildfire" ( "brush fire" here) season, where large swaths of open land with weeds and brush, can get abnormally dry with the onset of prevailing winds at this time of year, and any sparks can set the fires going. And in the case of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone contains areas with those types of open brush field conditions, some in viewing distance of the plant.

For example one that raged last year - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/13/ukraine-wildfires-close-chernobyl-nuclear-site



Now if you have Russian troops occupying that area like they are now, what happens if a wildfire starts in another month or so? Are the Russians going to fight it? Are they going to let the Ukrainians do that (where like here, they use aircraft to do overhead fire suppression)?

[Eugene]

7. Chernobyl Without Power Again After Russian Forces Damage High-Voltage Line, Ukrainian Energy Compan

Source: RFE/RL

March 14, 2022
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Chernobyl Without Power Again After Russian Forces Damage High-Voltage Line, Ukrainian Energy Company Says

KYIV -- The Chernobyl nuclear plant has lost power again after Russian forces damaged a high-voltage power line to the plant for the second time, Ukraine's national energy company, Ukrenergo, said on March 14.

The damage occurred not long after electricity supplies had been restored to the facility by a Ukrenergo crew after the line was damaged the first time.

The company said in a statement that the line, which also supplies power to the town of Slavutych, was damaged again by Russian forces after the Ukrenergo repair crew fixed it.

The decommissioned power plant, the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters, was fully cut off from the electrical grid last week and the plant lost power after the line was cut the first time.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/chernobyl-power-outage-russian-damage/31752275.html