The first unit of the Khmelnitskaya nuclear power plant, located in the Ukrainian city of Neteshin, is disconnected from the network due to the presence of leaks on the steam generator. It was reported in the press release of the operator of nuclear power plants in Ukraine, the company «Energoatom».

The unit will not function until 24 July. At the same time, the equipment of the second power unit is operating normally.

‘The radiation situation on-site and in the surrounding areas has not changed, it is at a level corresponding to the normal operation of power units and does not exceed the natural background levels,’ noted in the company statement.

In the spring of 2016, all the Ukrainian nuclear power plants were on the verge of stopping because of arrests of the «Energoatom» foreign currency accounts. This situation could have led to a delay in the supply of nuclear fuel at the stations and the stopping of the units. The company estimated its losses of a day of downtime of one block as almost 300 thousand dollars.

The state enterprise «National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom», established in 1996, is the operator of four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine, Zaporozhskaya, Rovnenskaya, Khmelnitskaya and South-Ukrainian. These nuclear power plants include 15 nuclear reactors. The corporation provides more than half of Ukraine's energy needs, in the autumn-winter period this figure reaches 70 percent.