Why Atucha I had to stop its production, according to nuclear power plant specialists

More than 20 million Argentines were left without electricity yesterday afternoon due to a massive power outage in the center of the country which affected several power lines.

And the fire started in some pastures about 8 kilometers from General Rodríguez, west of the suburbs of Buenos Aires, hit a high voltage line of 500 Kw that connects this area to Campana. But this cut generated more voltage drops and thus the biggest blackout of the last four years in Argentina was generated.

Immediately, one of the first hypotheses that circulated affirmed that Atucha I “had fallen” and that is why a large part of Argentina was without electricity on a day of very high demand due to the suffocating heat. The thermometer in the federal capital marked 36° and in several cities of the country the measurement was higher.

A few minutes later, Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA (NA-SA), the Argentine power generation company that operates the Embalse and Atucha I and II nuclear power plants, owned by the Ministry of Economy (79%), CNEA (20%) and IEASA ( 1%), issued a statement denying that Atucha I had been the cause of the massive cut, at the same time as communicating the stop of the nuclear power plant because of the incident.

“NUCLEOÉLECTRICA ARGENTINA clarifies that the massive interruption in the supply of electricity that occurred this afternoon was not caused by the Atucha I nuclear power plant, operated by this company, but a series of failures in the interconnected system led to the exit of said plant. Due to this external inconvenience with the electrical system, Atucha I nuclear power plant is out of service and he is in a safe stop,” the released statement read.

GlobeLiveMedia communicated with the responsible of the company, which clarified that there was “a fire in a field in the Pilar area that affected a high voltage line that caused a drop in the National Interconnected System, which is the high voltage network that carries electrical energy.This has made nuclear power plants unable to supply electricity to the grid.

“This is called cargo rejection and it happens when the failed power grid cannot receive power from a power station, so the power grid is automatically out of service. AND For safety reasons, the same nuclear power plant, unable to supply the energy it produces, must stop. For this reason, Atucha I and the Embalse factory in Cordoba have stopped production. The stoppage did not affect Atucha II because it was not working, since it is being repaired due to previous damage,” the operator of the nuclear power plant explained to this media.

“In the case of nuclear plants, we have a 24 to 40 hour process to resume operation and service. It is not a lever that goes up or down. We must restore the chemical conditions inside the reactor for it to work again,” said the operator.

Sources of Nuclear Argentina they specified to GlobeLiveMedia that with regard to security measures, a nuclear power plant shuts down because it cannot supply energy which generates the National Interconnected System (SADI).

And due to security protocols, it takes those hours to restore service. It is a question of restoring the safety conditions of the reactor to produce energy again. These are automatic and international protocols.

“There were no downsides in nuclear power plants, no problems or failures. Only that they were affected by the fall of this interconnected national system generated by a fire. It should also be specified that Atucha I supplies 362 KW, therefore the cut-off of 10,000 KW due to the interconnection failure, this could never have been attributed solely to Atucha I,” they claimed.

They also clarified that the nuclear power plant was never threatened by the power failure. The nuclear power plant itself has different ways of cooling the reactor. Using the clean energy it generates first, then with independent diesel generator engines that are activated in the event of an emergency or power failure. This happened with the big Father’s Day blackout in 2019.

In addition to Atucha I and Embalse, other generators were stopped, such as Central Puerto. The widespread power outage affected the electrical services of AMBA and cities in various provinces: Mendoza, Cordoba, Santa Cruz, Catamarca, San Luis, San Juan and Santa Fe, among others, in the middle of the IX hello heat of the year.

Yesterday the electric company Transene SA reported that at 3:59 p.m., 3 high-voltage lines connecting General Rodríguez’s transformer stations and the Litoral region occurred following a fire in the field. “Under conditions of high demand, the disturbance generated oscillations in the system, generating the opening of additional links to the previous ones with the consequent restriction of demand” explain.

In turn, they added: “Walking with CAMESSA launched its emergency plan and began its work to restore supply according to established procedures”.

There Nuclear Power Plant I, President Juan Domingo Peron, It was built in June 1968 and became the first nuclear power plant in Latin America. It was connected to the national power system on March 19, 1974, and began commercial production on June 24 of the same year.

Atucha I is located on the right bank of the Paraná de las Palmas river, 100 kilometer(s) from the city of Buenos Aires in the city of Lima, Zarate Party. It currently has a gross electrical output of 362 megawatts electrical.

Although it is the first Argentinian plant, all its security systems have been updated and comply with local and international requirements. From 2008 to date, Nucleoeléctrica has been carrying out the Atucha I life extension project, the completion of which will extend its operation for another twenty-four years at full power.

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