Russian nuclear power plants: five accidents in the first 11 days of February

Russian nuclear power plants pose a real threat to the population of the country. The first decade of February puts records for unplanned shutdown of the reactor at nuclear power plants in Russia: there was five unplanned shutdowns and unloading units in 11 days. Nuclear energy demonstrates the extreme precariousness of work, while nuclear engineers prefer to pretend that nothing significant is happening. Despite these freelancers, and potential emergency situations Rosatom says that it was planned blackouts and unloading units.

Chronicle outages

During the first decade of February unplanned reactor shutdown, power off, power on the network and reduce power occurred at Balakovo, Smolensk, Kursk, Beloyarsk and Kola nuclear power plant.Rosatom propagandists in almost all cases they say about disabled "in accordance with the submitted application, but it should not be misleading. Power generating units continue to operate reliably, loss of power from the power of the country have become regular.

According to available information, failures occurred in the steam generators and turbine generators, that is, not part of the nuclear plant.However, any changes in the conditions of the reactor - the routine discharge of a team of operators or emergency shutdown automation leads to increased load on the equipment aging power plants that can not stand ...

Balakovo - noisy off

Balakovo, the power unit № 4 (VVER-1000 reactor, commissioned in December 1985), the 07/02/2011 - Reactor shutdown. The reactor was launched in unscheduled maintenance, ongoing at the time of writing this article.

"At 18:57 HR AU reactor block № 4 transferred to the sub-critical state due to spontaneous opening and unfitting impulse safety device (ISP) steam generator PG-1" - this is an incident reported Situation and Crisis Center of Rosatom. Unit was launched in unscheduled repairs. However, the Public Information Center Balakovo= 2F68ED72-0164-4FF7-9FAF-972DAB053DAB "target =" _blank "> on its web site offers a slightly different interpretation of events: February 7, 2011 in 18 hours 57 minutes in accordance with the submitted application shut down power unit № 4 Balakovo for routine repair of mechanical equipment of steam the second circuit.

Feel the difference - it is one thing - an unscheduled stop for repairs, and another thing - for preventive ... Actually, the nuclear industry can not for formal reasons to accuse of lying - the reactor is stopped really was not an automatic alarm, and personnel actions.Possible, and the application was filed on stopping - for a few minutes before removing power from the network ...

Crash was heard in the city. Local newspaper "stubborn facts" so says the impressions of suburbanites Balakovo, who witnessed the accident: "In the evening, Feb. 7 villagers Natalino warily listened to the rumble that emanated from Balakovo. Even they are accustomed to the noise from time to time bulletin issued by the shutdown of nuclear power, was not himself on this unprecedented rumble, penetrating even into the Sound Attenuated plastic windows.A high cloud rising above the station, evoke disturbing thoughts about the accident. "

Head of the Information NPP Natalia Bondarenko, by contrast, does not believe the accident or even incident. In correspondence with Anna Vinogradova, head of the department Balakovo VOOP, she says: "Stopping is not an incident. Power unit 4 is stopped in accordance with the submitted application for preventive maintenance of mechanical equipment of steam the second circuit.

"Lied, lied and will lie?" - Ask the journalists of the local newspaper "stubborn facts" ...

Smolensk NPP: unloading to 50% on day

Smolensk nuclear power unit № 2 (RBMK-1000 reactor, commissioned in December 1982, the design life expires in 2012.) 02.09.2011 - disable turbo from the network, the unloading block 50%.February 10 emergency turbine generator was restarted after an unplanned repairs.

"02/08/2011 at 23:40 in the unit to operate at a capacity of 1000 MW defect system gazoohlazhdeniya turbogenerator TG-4.09.02.2011 at 02:03 TG-4 is turned off and removed in emergency repairs on the application until 02:00 02/11/2011 ", - informs Situation and Crisis Center of Rosatom. Public Information Center of the Smolensk nuclear power plants , like their counterparts in Balakovo try to hide the fact that the discharge power was unplanned, speaking of the "filed application": "9 February 2011 in accordance with the submitted application power unit № 2 of the Smolensk nuclear power plant was reduced by 50% due to maintenance works on the fourth turbine ( TG-4).Violations of limits and conditions for safe operation of power plants there. "

Again, an attempt to hush up about that and unloading unit and repair the defective turbine generator was not planned ...

Kursk nuclear power plant: a stop for a week to replace the gasket

Kursk nuclear power plant unit № 1 (RBMK-1000 reactor, commissioned in December 1976, the design life has expired in 2006).02/09/2011 - output unit in the urgent repair.

Public Information Center Kursk said : "February 9, 2011 at 8:00 07 minutes in accordance with the submitted application unit number 1 of the Kursk nuclear power plant shut down for repairs due to the need to replace seals on the equipment in the room unattended.

"Reactor shut down key station personnel rapid decrease in capacity.Block removed in emergency repairs to 08:00 02/16/2011 ", - adds Situation and Crisis Center of Rosatom. It is important to note that this particular unit, tentatively planned to operate at a capacity of more than nominal, which may lead to continued failure of different systems of old and dangerous power.

Beloyarsk NPP: 6 days on low power

Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant (Sverdlovsk region), BN-600 (commissioned in April 1980, the design life has expired in 2010).From 5 to 11 February unit operates at a capacity of 380 MW "for repair of electrical equipment.

Public Information Center Beloyarsk said : "February 9, 2011 BN-600 Beloyarsk went to a nominal level of 600 MW after completion of repair work on electrical equipment. On the causes of a six-day repairs were reported.

Kola Nuclear Power Plant - outage turbogenerator

The Kola nuclear power plant, unit № 4 (Rector of the VVER-440, commissioned in October 1984).02/11/2011 - tripping turbogenerator, unloading to 50%.

Public Information Center Kola said : "February 11 at 10:00. 19 min. at the Kola nuclear power plant emergency control action has been disconnected from the network turbogenerator TG-7 4-th power. Power unit № 4 decreased by 50%. "

The details of the emergency shutdown turbine and timing of repair is not reported.

It is important to note that the same unit in January because of an unplanned shutdown caused by a short circuit in the cable tunnel was idle for 6 days - from 17 to 23 January.During this time the power grid did not get about 63 million kWh of electricity.

Due to downtime caused by unplanned outages of the third and fourth reactors, and the work units at reduced power in January 2011 Kola nedovyrabotala over 217 million kilowatt-hours If all four power plant operated at a capacity of 440 MW, then the 31 day of January, production amounted to a 309.4 million kWh of electricity.According to the nuclear plant in January have been issued to the grid a 092.2 million kWh

Surprisingly, for such a strange economic indicators, the Public Information Center Kola Having reported that in January, the station has developed "more than the same period in 2010." Since the time of the Chernobyl nuclear power advocates are well aware of methods of keeping the position of mines on a bad game ...

Results: 5 trips in 11 days

Russian nuclear power plants again showed inability to consistently generate electricity.11 days were unscheduled off 5 out of 32 existing units. With aging equipment unscheduled repairs will be needed more often - and this not only additional costs and shortfalls in electricity. If the repair is carried out in a hurry, if not ensured the quality of repair, the failure may become more frequent and with reznymi.

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