A week ago, an incident occurred at the world’s first experimental nuclear power-generating in Russia’s Novovoronezh. However, it was not until Thursday when the official confirmation appeared on the website.
“On the night of November 10, 2016, at the time of testing plant power unit Nr 6 an electric generator failure occurred, which triggered its disconnecting from the system.”
The failure may have been caused by the equipment’s design fault or an error made during installing or using.
NPP Director Vladimir Povarov does not consider the failure to be any emergency situation.
The copy of the Russian experimental nuclear power plant unit is expected to be installed and put into operation at the Belarusian nuclear power plant that is being biuilt in Astravets. According to Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovsky, if the investigation reveals any errors in the design, one will have to replace all power generators at all nuclear power plants of the same kind, including that of Astravets.
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The NPP first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, the second one – in 2020. The construction of two nuclear reactors is provided in the agreement reached by Belarus and Russia, the reactors being supplied by Atomstroyexport, Russia. The project faced opposition at home and abroad on both safety and political grounds.
Lithuania is the main critic of the idea of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is only 20 km from the border and 50 km from Vilnius. Minsk rejects Lithuania’s claims, arguing that nuclear power plants will have high safety standards. Vilnius asked Brussels for involvement of the European Union in the matter.
