Ukraine: Nuclear reactor shut down unexpectedly for third time in month

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Ukraine: Nuclear reactor shut down unexpectedly for third time Copyright ) 2000 Nando Media Copyright ) 2000 Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine (March 30, 2000 9:57 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Operation of a nuclear reactor was stopped at a Ukrainian atomic power plant Thursday to fix a metal flaw in its steam pipe, the third unplanned reactor shutdown in the former Soviet republic this month.

The Rivne plant's reactor No. 3 was expected to resume operation Friday, the state nuclear company Energoatom said.

The same reactor was stopped earlier this month to fix an oil leak. Another reactor, at the Yuzhnaya plant, also was halted in March for unplanned repairs.

Several reactor output reductions, caused by various malfunctions, also were reported in March at the Zaporizhia plant and Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

Environmentalists are concerned about the state of Ukraine's five nuclear power plants, but officials insist that their reactors are generally safe.

The government has promised to shut down Chernobyl, which causes special worries, by the end of 2000 but wants foreign aid first to build two new reactors that would compensate for Chernobyl's lost power.

Ukraine's 14 operational reactors provide for some 40 percent of the country's electricity.

http://www.nandotimes.com/24hour/modbee/healthscience/story/0,1655,500186886-500250042-501265194-0,00.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 31, 2000


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