Russians at ZNPP put power unit in cold shutdown, where reagent leak occurred

The Russian occupation administration of Zaporizhzhia NPP is putting unit 5 into a "cold shutdown" state, where a leakage of reagents from the first reactor circuit to the second occurred earlier.

According to Ukrinform, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported this.

"Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is transitioning its reactor unit 5 to cold from hot shutdown and intends to determine the cause of boron detected in a cooling circuit, still leaving one of the plant’s six reactors in hot shutdown to produce steam and heating," the statement said.

The 4th power unit will remain in the "hot" state. The occupiers also assured the IAEA that they do not plan to transfer the 2nd power unit to the "hot shutdown" state to replace the 5th.

"Once in cold shutdown, the ZNPP will carry out tests to identify why low levels of boron were found in the secondary cooling circuit of one of the unit’s steam generators," the statement said.

The occupation administration of the ZNPP informed the IAEA experts at the plant that the concentration of boron in the relevant cooling circuit remains below the limits allowed by its technical characteristics. In addition, no radioactivity was detected in the secondary cooling circuit. To maintain nuclear safety, borated water is used in the primary coolant.

As Ukrinform reported, on November 16, it became known that as a result of the transfer of the 5th power unit of the temporarily occupied ZNPP to the "hot" state - in violation of the SNRIU license and Energoatom requirements - an incident occurred with a leakage of reagents from the first reactor circuit to the second. Despite the violations, the occupation authorities were in no hurry to put the unit into a "cold shutdown" state, using the steam generated by unit 5 for heating and meeting the plant's own needs.

Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov