The energy complex of Ukraine will include four nuclear power plants. One of the operating today is the South Ukrainian NPP.
Nuclear power plant as part of the energy complex
The nuclear power plant is part of the South Ukrainian energy complex. When creating the project of the complex, it was envisaged that it would provide electricity to three regions of Ukraine - Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In addition to nuclear power plants, the complex includes hydroelectric power station (hydroelectric power station) and PSPP (hydroaccumulative station).
The use of three types of enterprises makes it possible to generate cost-optimal electricity. At the time of a decline in consumption (mainly at night), the units of the pumped storage station operate in the pump mode, pumping water into the upper pool, and at the time of peak loads (late in the evening) - in the turbine mode, transferring additional generated electricity to the network. At the same time, nuclear power plants and hydropower plants operate in a quiet mode, without peak power drops, which is dangerous for turbines. Pronounced load peaks are typical for this southern region of Ukraine, therefore, a new type of energy complex was designed for it, similar to the European ones that are successfully operating.
Station construction and technical parameters
The site where the South Ukrainian NPP is located is selected in the Nikolaev region. In 1975, the construction of the station and the satellite city of Yuzhnoukrainsk began. Since 1982, all three millionaire blocks were started up in turn. The construction of the fourth block was frozen in 1989, and the question of its construction was no longer raised.
Yuzhnoukrainskaya NPP operates on VVER-1000 reactors. They were made in Leningrad, at the Izhora Plants enterprise. Manufacturers of turbines, reactor plants and generators were enterprises of Leningrad and Kharkov.
The nuclear power plant reached full capacity in 1989. To date, the generated capacity of nuclear power plants (almost 18 billion kW / h per year) is enough to ensure 10% of all electricity consumption in Ukraine. For the regions of Nikolaev, Kherson and Odessa - this is almost 96%. According to the installed capacity (3000 MW), the Yuzhnoukrainskaya NPP is the second after Zaporizhzhya in Ukraine.
The situation with fuel elements (TVEL)
The source of nuclear fuel for all nuclear power plants in Ukraine (including the Yuzhnoukrainskaya NPP) was (and still is) the fuel elements manufactured at TVEL Group of Companies in Russia. A nuclear reaction occurs in them with the release of heat transferred to the coolant.
Since 2000, Ukraine has been trying to change the monopoly supplies of Russian nuclear fuel by signing a contract with Westinghouse Electric (USA).
The site for experimental work was selected South Ukrainian NPP. American fuel cartridges were installed on all three units of the station as a partial replacement for Russian TVELs.
In 2012, damage was discovered to American fuel cartridges in the third block. The operation of the elements in the first and second blocks continued.
Since 2000, two Russian TVELs have been transferred to Westinghouse Electric, and it is in their likeness that the United States produces fuel elements for the Yuzhnoukrainskaya nuclear power plant.
In September 2014, after the revision of all American elements in operation, the contract with Westinghouse Electric was extended until 2020.
TVEL Group remains a supplier of nuclear fuel for the remaining three nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
Under the Russian contract, the Russian Federation is engaged in the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Who will be involved in the disposal of American assemblies is not yet clear how they still have not answered the question of who is responsible for the security of the "mixed" installation of nuclear elements at the reactors of the Yuzhnoukrainskaya nuclear power plant. For reference: the Czech Republic, having followed a similar path with the United States in the supply of nuclear fuel for its nuclear power plant, abandoned this idea and works on Russian TVELs.
