It is reported that the plant is currently operating on emergency diesel generators.
As a result of the morning shelling of Kharkiv, the nuclear subcritical facility «Neutron Source» was de-energized. According to the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, the emergency power supply system worked in the normal mode emergency diesel generators have been put into operation, and the radiation situation at the site is now «within the normal range».
The research nuclear facility «Neutron Source» operates on the basis of the National Science Center «Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology». It is an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor primarily designed to conduct scientific and applied research in nuclear physics, radiation materials science, biology, chemistry, and to produce medical radioisotopes.
At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the staff put the facility into a deep subcritical state. In March 2022, the NPP building «Neutron Source targeted fire — at that time, the northern wall of the accelerator extension to the experimental hall of the facility, ventilation ducts, the ventilation pipe of the main building, the cooling system of the accelerator klystron gallery, the cases of the diesel generators of the emergency power supply system, and the cladding of the main building of the facility were damaged. During a subsequent inspection of the industrial site, personnel found an item preliminarily classified as unexploded MLRS 9K58 rocket «Smerch».
The building was shelled again on June 25, 2022, and finally on April 4, 2023, during the Kharkiv «Shahed» attack, the facility lost external power supply.
«Despite the fact that the facility does not pose any danger in its operational state, if for some reason the physical destruction of this facility occurs, fuel and radioactive elements may be released, and this, of course, is a major problem for the environment. In fact, the picture is the same as at nuclear power plants… If it is destroyed by external attacks, the same type of catastrophe can occur as with nuclear power plants», — noted in a commentary «Suspilne» Director General of the SSC «Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology» Mykola Shulha.
As a reminder, on the night of March 22, Russia carried out the most massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, among other things by hitting the Dnipro hydroelectric power plant — at the same time, the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP was on the verge of blackout. Kharkiv’s energy facilities were also damaged, leaving 700,000 customers without electricity — today’s another Shahed attack on the city, in addition to a temporary blackout for «Neutron Source», resulted in the deaths of four people, including three employees of the State Emergency Service, and damage to residential buildings.