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IAEA chief welcomes cold shutdown of all Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reactor systems

Safety at the Russianheld Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains precarious however the shift to a cold shutdown of all 6 reactor units, completed on Saturday, is favorable, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said in a statement.

Drones assaulted Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting a reactor building in the worst such occurrence since November 2022, though nuclear security was not compromised, the International Atomic Energy Firm (IAEA) has stated.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated that with completion of the winter season heating season in nearby Enerhodar, where most plant personnel live, system 4 had been moved from hot shutdown on Saturday, bringing all six reactor systems to cold shutdown for the very first time considering that late 2022.

I welcome this advancement which has actually been recommended by the Firm for a long time, as it improves the total safety of the center, Grossi's statement said.

Cold shutdown permits an extra action margin of a number of days before the cooling of the nuclear fuel in the reactor may be challenged, he included.

The reactor would also need less cooling water than in hot shutdown, he said, a problem that grew more tough following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June.

Nevertheless Grossi stated the situation at the nuclear plant stayed incredibly fragile, keeping in mind a group of IAEA professionals had heard 16 rounds of outbound artillery fire in less than half an hour on Saturday, and a number of drone strikes had actually targeted the facility over the previous week.

The cold shutdown did not resolve the basic concern of a current sharp degeneration of the scenario at the plant, he stated. Without a doubt, nuclear security and security at this significant nuclear facility stays really precarious.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused one another of targeting the plant considering that Russia took it weeks after it got into Ukraine. Both countries asked for an emergency meeting of the IAEA's Board not long after Sunday's attack.