Several days ago we heard rumors, unsubstantiated, of an accident at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest and the 5th biggest in the world. Considering Ukraine’s history with nuclear accidents, and resultant panics, we decided it would be prudent to wait for an official confirmation before proceeding with a report. We got the confirmation about an hour ago, when Ukraine’s new/old Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, or “Yats” as his puppetmaster Victoria Nuland likes to call him, said “on Wednesday an accident had occurred at the Zaporizhye nuclear power plant (NPP) in south-east Ukraine and called on the energy minister to hold a news conference.”
A “minor” accident that is, which remains a rather nebulous term on the continuum of nuclear power plant “malfunctions.” So minor, in fact, the PM waited almost a week before revealing it to the world.
From Reuters:
“I know that an accident has occurred at the Zaporizhye NPP,” Yatseniuk said, asking new energy minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn to make clear when the problem would be resolved and what steps would be taken to restore normal power supply across Ukraine.
News agency Interfax Ukraine said the problem had occurred at bloc No 3 – a 1,000-megawatt reactor – and the resulting lack of output had worsened the power crisis in the country. Interfax added that the bloc was expected to come back on stream on Dec. 5.
Just like Fukushima is expected to come back on line in a few years ago.
So is this just another Chernobyl? According to Ukraine, “the radioactive meltdown is contained.” RT has more:
“There is no threat … there are no problems with the reactors,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at briefing, adding the accident affected the power output system and “in no way” was linked to power production itself.
The incident was not made public until Wednesday, when PM Yatsenyuk asked the energy minister to report on what happened and how the ministry is handling the situation.
The accident left several dozen towns and villages without electricity, Russian media reported, citing local officials.
Of course, there is no way to actually know what is happening on the ground as the NPP is located close enough to the “fog of war”, that its status, and updates thereof, could merely be part of the fog of war. That said, if there is an unspoken message here by Ukraine, which recently handed over its gold to unknown “Western” interests, and suddenly feels neglected by its western allies (as its central bank head is about to find out personally), it is targeted directly at the IMF: “hand over more loans, or the nuclear power plant gets it.”
