This handout photo taken and retrieved from the imagebank of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on June 15, 2023 shows a member of the agency walking near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine during an official visit of the IAEA Director General Grossi with his team to the nuclear power plant and its surrounding area. (PHOTO / AFP)
Operators carrying out maintenance at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have switched the shutdown mode of two reactors, the administration of the plant said on Tuesday.
Europe's largest nuclear plant has been controlled by Russian forces since March 2022. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been trying to set up a safety mechanism to prevent accidents.
One of the plant's six reactors, according to the IAEA, needs to be kept in a hot shutdown mode in order to produce steam required for nuclear safety, including the processing of liquid radioactive waste in storage tanks
One of the plant's six reactors, according to the IAEA, needs to be kept in a hot shutdown mode in order to produce steam required for nuclear safety, including the processing of liquid radioactive waste in storage tanks.
"In order to conduct a scheduled technical inspection of the equipment of power unit No 5, the management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant decided to transfer it to the 'cold shutdown,' state," the administration said on its Telegram channel.
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"And in order to provide steam for the station's own needs, the reactor plant of power unit No 4 was transferred to the 'hot shutdown' state."
The IAEA said in a statement on Monday that the plant administration had informed the agency about the transition.
"The other units remain in cold shutdown," the IAEA said in the statement.
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IAEA inspectors stationed at the plant had noted mines in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers and had also observed mines during previous checks, Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, said on Monday.