Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power plant by capacity, South-Ukrainian NPP, shut down its 1 GW reactor No.1 due to a minor malfunction, EnergoAtom, the state nuclear power generator, reported Wednesday.
South-Ukrainian NPP operates three reactors with a total capacity of 3 GW, but after the latest shutdown all three units appeared to be offline.
The No.1 unit was shut down at 09:40 Kiev time (07:40 GMT) Wednesday to fix a malfunction in the turbine control system.
"Radiation levels at nuclear power plant sites do not exceed the norm," the company said in a statement.
The power plant unexpectedly stopped its unit No.2 March 21 to fix a malfunction in the generator cooling system, the company said.
South-Ukrainian NPP shut down its reactor No.3 March 6 for scheduled maintenance and to replace nuclear fuel. The reactor is expected to return June 11.
South-Ukrainian unit No.3 is the only nuclear reactor in Ukraine using both Russian TVEL-made and Westinghouse-made assemblies of nuclear fuel.
EnergoAtom incorporates all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants that run 15 nuclear power reactors with total capacity of 13.8 GW. The company produces about 55% of the country's total power output.
EnergoAtom said five reactors are currently offline, including Zaporizhia-1, Zaporizhia-2, South-Ukrainian-3, South-Ukrainian-2 and South-Ukrainian-1.
