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Reactor shut-down at Kola NPP

Kola nuclear power plant.

Short circuit in a cable caused closure of reactor No. 4 at Kola nuclear power plant.

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The incident happened Monday evening at 21.07 local time.

According to a short information note posted by the public information centre at Kola nuclear power plant (Kola NPP), the closure of the reactor was conducted in accordance with the requirements for the operation of the nuclear power plant.

Reactor No. 4 is the newest of the four pressured water reactors (VVER-440 type). It was commissioned in 1984.

The three other reactors are still in operation. Kola NPP says the radiation level at and around Kola nuclear power plant does not exceed the natural background level.

Read alsoRussian nuclear power plants pose no more risk

In September last year, reactor No. 3 at Kola nuclear power plant was automatically shut down on after a malfunction in one of the elements in the system responsible for pressure control in the first compartment.

On January 15 last year, a five meter high oil voltage transformer exploded at the Kola Nuclear Power Plant during a hurricane leaving northern parts of the Kola Peninsula without power.