KIEV, December 29. /TASS/. Power unit No 6 of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been completed and all NPP’s units have been connected to the power grid. The power ascension is in progress. The radiation background at the plant is normal, the NPP press service reported on Monday.
The 6th power unit was shut down on Sunday morning by the protection system due to the generator’s internal fault. The reactor facility capacity was lowered to 40%. According to the NPP press service, “The radiation background at the plant site and at the buffer area (territory around the NPP with the radius of 2.5 km) is 8-12 micro Roentgen per hour, which corresponds to the natural background radiation at the Zaporizhia NPP site.”
In November, the Zaporizhia NPP disconnected its 3rd power unit from the grid system because of a short circuit in the power output system. The 3rd unit’s disconnection was one of the reasons for the introduction of schedule of outages across the country.
Two power units of the NPP will be shut down for overhaul in February 2015. The lengthiest overhaul (129 days) is expected to be conducted at the first power unit. This will be the last repairs before the NPP service life extension program launch.
Zaporizhia NPP is the largest nuclear power plant not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe and also the fifth largest NPP in the world. It is situated on the bank of the Kakhovka water reservoir on the Dnieper River. This is some 200 kilometres from the warzone in Donetsk region.
The plant’s six VVER-1000 pressurized light water nuclear reactors with nominal capacity of 1000 MWe generate 40-42 billion kWh per year each. This accounts for one-fifth of the average annual electricity production in Ukraine and almost 47% of electricity generated at Ukrainian nuclear power plants.