KIEV, November 23. /TASS/. All three nuclear power plants operating in Ukraine have been disconnected from the country's power grid. Two of them, the South Ukraine and Rovne NPPs, are in emergency shutdown mode. The head of the military administration of the Khmelnitsky region, Sergey Gamaliy, reported on the shutdown of the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant.
Local media were the first to report on the emergency shutdown of power units at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant in the Nikolayev Region. This information was then confirmed by Energoatom. According to the operator, it is due to the destruction of the electrical grid, as a result of which the plant had nowhere to deliver the generated electricity. At the same time, the company says that the plant itself is fine.
The Strana media outlet then reported that the Rovne nuclear power plant had switched to emergency mode. According to the newspaper, the most likely reason was a sharp drop in electricity consumption. Gamaliy later reported on his Telegram channel that the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant units were disconnected from the power system.
On Wednesday afternoon, an air alert was declared throughout Ukraine. It lasted more than two hours, after which only the northeastern regions of the country remained in the red zone. There were reports of explosions and damage to infrastructure from various cities. Ukrenergo reported that emergency blackouts will continue throughout Ukraine during the day.
As of the beginning of 2022, there were four operating nuclear power plants with 15 power units in Ukraine with a total capacity of 13.88 GW. Another plant, the Chernobyl plant, was decommissioned in 2000. Since March 2022, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has been under the protection of the Russian military.