The IAEA to shield the power system of Ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has begun monitoring Ukraine's nodal substations, on which electricity supplies from the three remaining nuclear power plants under Kiev's control and the operation of the reactors themselves depend. In fact, these are all the main substations of the country, since nuclear generation generates three-quarters of the electricity at Ukraine.

"The IAEA will expand the representation of its monitoring missions in Ukraine on infrastructure facilities that affect the safety of nuclear power plants. On September 12, a group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited one of the electrical substations that has a direct impact on the safety and stability of the NPP. The substation has recently been damaged as a result of massive rocket attacks by Russia,"Energoatom reports.

The national company said that the IAEA experts, together with representatives of Energoatom, Ukrenergo and Gosatomregulirovaniya, inspected the facility and documented the damage.

Earlier, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, announced new monitoring missions at substations after a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky.

"To assess these substations, our experts will apply all the knowledge and experience of the agency in the field of nuclear industrial safety and protection of critical infrastructure," the IAEA Director General said. He noted that a group of agency experts would visit some of the damaged Ukrainian substations, which were identified as the most important links in the chain of ensuring nuclear safety.

In Kiev, it was stated that damage at one of the substations led to the shutdown of the NPP power unit. And Energy Minister German Galushchenko explained that monitoring would be conducted at those facilities, due to damage to which it would be necessary to reduce the capacity of the stations and "jam" the reactors. Indirectly, he confirmed that we are talking about almost all the main substations of the country, despite the fact that three nuclear power plants controlled by Kiev are, in fact, in two regions: Khmelnitsky and The Rivne NPP is near Rivne, and the South Ukrainian NPP is in The Nikolaev area.

"Ten critical nodes connected to nuclear power plants are at stake, the destruction of which could plunge the country into darkness and provoke a radiological emergency," the minister said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

For Ukraine, all ten nodal substations are almost all the main substations. Rafael Grossi reported that they are in different parts of Ukraine.

After retaliatory strikes by the Russian army and the loss of 9 GW of TPP, CHP and HPP capacity, the share of nuclear generation in Ukraine has grown to 75% of total electricity production. And the cutting off of any large region, for example, Kiev, which is located 275 kilometers from the nearest station, can be explained by the need to reduce power and stop the reactors of nuclear power plants.

The IAEA is present at three nuclear power plants in Ukraine, and, obviously, in the West and in Kiev expects that additional monitoring missions will stop retaliatory strikes on the most important substations of Ukraine "because of the threat to nuclear safety." In the meantime, Ukrainian experts reported that the NPP power units were stopped for other reasons. So, in Kiev and the IAEA declare a hit on substations important for nuclear power plants on August 26.

"On August 26, large-scale strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine caused significant fluctuations in the parameters of electricity and led to a temporary shutdown or shutdown of some power units of the Rivne and South Ukrainian nuclear power plants, one of which has not yet been fully put back into operation. The situation with external power supply to the Khmelnitsky NPP and the Chernobyl NPP site has also worsened," the IAEA reported.

At the same time, the managing director of the Energy Research Center, Alexander Kharchenko, wrote that the reactor of the South Ukrainian NPP in The Nikolaev area reduced power on September 3. And obviously for a technical reason.

"Two extra lines of disconnections from Ukrenergo today (Tuesday, September 3) — because the power unit has reduced output by 600 MW. Most likely, it will be repaired next week. Consequently, Energoatom's victorious reports on prematurely completed repairs should not only please, but also frighten," the expert wrote.

He noted that the issue of the quality of repairs is attached to the question of the Minister of Energy on the protection of switchgear of nuclear power plants: "If the units fly out in winter, we will all be in trouble ...".

Energoatom hastened to refute the message about the technical reason, citing significant fluctuations in the network due to retaliatory strikes.

Earlier, on July 18, a Ukrainian expert reported that transformers were burning due to the heat and this led to the shutdown of two reactors at the South Ukrainian NPP. Energoatom denied the problems at the NPP. However, the IAEA has confirmed the shutdown of at least one reactor.