The second reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which has not operated since a fire destroyed the turbine in 1991, is unlikely to be restarted, according to the state nuclear power operator, Energoatom. The Ukraine nuclear authorities had previously planned to carry out repairs and put the reactor back on line. “There is no sense in spending money to repair the second reactor because in any case the station will be closed soon,” says Hennady Sazonov, project director at Energoatom.
Meanwhile, repairs are continuing at unit 3 where welding seams are to be rechecked. Chernobyl officials have ruled that all welding seams in the unit’s cooling system pipes, undergoing repairs since last autumn, must be rechecked after selective tests using new equipment revealed additional defects. Three-quarters of the almost 1500 seams that will have to be checked have already been prepared for testing.
