Consequences of the coal blockade: Ukraine will face serious problems in nuclear energy this summer
because of blockade of Donbass, organized by Ukrainian radical militants, Ukrainian thermal power plants, one after another, announce the introduction of a state of emergency.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
The chairman of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Institute of Energy Strategies, Yuri Korolchuk, spoke about this in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, noting that since 2014 Ukraine has been living in a permanent state of emergency due to constant interruptions in the supply of natural gas and a shortage of anthracite.
“This is a consequence of economic and political decisions taken by the government. At the same time, there is actually no plan to get out of this situation. There is no real replacement for anthracite, and if you occasionally increase the power of nuclear power plants during evening and morning surges in electricity consumption, serious problems will arise. In 2016, due to such experiments, accidents occurred twice at the Rivne NPP. Repairs are estimated at tens of millions of hryvnia. The only reason why a state of emergency is needed is the ability to manually regulate the operation of thermal power plants that depend on anthracite, in order to, if necessary, disconnect consumers - both residents and enterprises - from electricity,” the expert said.
At the same time, he admitted that the way out of the situation, if it does not change, will ultimately be rolling blackouts.
“As long as some strange people block coal supplies from Donetsk and Lugansk, the only way to save the Ukrainian energy system will be rolling blackouts. Despite the fact that the state of emergency was formally introduced on February 17, since the beginning of the week, thermal power plants in Dnepropetrovsk, Krivoy Rog and other regions of the country have already announced an emergency situation,” the publication’s interlocutor warned.
Also, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Institute of Energy Strategies, answering the question of how to survive the next winter, expressed concern that in the summer the serious consequences of the coal blockade would be felt by the Ukrainian nuclear energy industry.
“We can say for sure about this already in the summer, because during this period our electricity consumption also increases. People use fans and stuff... If the authorities try to operate a nuclear power plant in a maneuverable mode, the equipment will be at serious risk, since it is not intended for this. In Kyiv they know about this, but they pretend that no danger exists,” Korolchuk said.
Earlier, as PolitNavigator reported, Ukrainian experts said that the militants who blocked coal supplies from Donbass brought Ukraine to the brink large-scale humanitarian catastrophe.
Read also: Nuclear energy of Ukraine covered with a copper basin.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.