Long-awaited reactor No. 2 at Khmelnytskyi goes on line (08/15/04)

Long-awaited reactor No. 2 at Khmelnytskyi goes on line

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The controversial, newly constructed No. 2 nuclear reactor at Khmelnytskyi was finally commissioned on August 8 during a ceremony attended by President Leonid Kuchma.

After giving the official command that brought Ukraine's newest, most modern and ostensibly safest atomic power plant on line at noon on August 8, the president again criticized the West, and particularly the Group of 7 most economically advanced countries, for failing to extend needed credits to Ukraine to complete the project, which Ukraine finally did so on its own.

Ukraine had requested money to help finish the second reactor at Khmelnytskyi (K2), as well as the fourth reactor at the Rivne nuclear plant (R4), in a deal struck with the G-7 in 1995 whose central focus was the closing of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1999.

"We were solemnly promised aid, particularly in the construction of a new shelter at the Chornobyl power plant; for the completion of the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants; as well as construction of high-voltage transmission lines; and finally, completion of the Dnister hydroelectric plant," explained Mr. Kuchma in an address after the start-up command was issued during the Khmelnytskyi ceremony.

He said that, in the end, Ukraine "had not received a kopiyka for the completion of the power units, transmission lines, not to mention the Dnister hydroelectric project."

The G-7 had given the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development the task of developing the necessary programs to help fulfill the conditions of the agreement to close Chornobyl as it was spelled out in the memorandum signed in 1995. The EBRD attached strict demands for energy reform and the privatization of the energy sector as conditions for receiving the loans.

As the K2R4 project ground to a standstill over the lack of reforms in Ukraine's energy sector, Ukraine turned to Moscow and received funding from Russia to continue with K2R4 construction. When the EBRD demanded more reforms even after Ukraine had completed a large portion of the privatization of the energy sector before it would disburse credits - and with Ukraine's hot economy beginning to fill government coffers with much-needed revenues - Kyiv decided to go it alone and completed K2 towards the end of 2003.

But on the first day of official operation more problems arose, albeit only minor technical ones, as it turned out. Turbine and generator malfunctions twice caused automatic shutdowns of K2.

The first automatic shutdown occurred only an hour and a half after the official ceremony had finished. Engineers blamed a faulty generator. They restarted the reactor three and a half hours later only to have it shut down again two hours after that. This time a faulty turbine pump was to blame. After a full day off-line the reactor was restarted for testing on August 10.

Even with the minor setbacks, Ukrainian officials hailed the commissioning of the newest Ukrainian nuclear power reactor over much financial difficulty. Mr. Kuchma called the completion of the second nuclear block at Khmelnytskyi "our common victory." He identified K2 as "one of the most modern energy-producing facilities in the world."

The K2 plant received the international OK to begin its work after the International Atomic Energy Agency reviewed the construction work and then supervised the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor in February. Ukraine's energy organization, EnergoAtom, obtained the requisite licensing from Ukraine's Nuclear Regulatory Committee on August 5 and immediately began the slow process of starting up the nuclear fission process that turns the huge turbine that generates the electricity. The reactor was not expected to reach full capacity for 128 days.

The R4, the new nuclear reactor at Rivne, has also been completed and is expected to be commissioned at the end of September. The two new reactors, when fully functional, should allow Ukraine to become a net energy exporter to Europe.

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