Updated On: 11 June, 2023 08:33 AM IST | Kyiv | Agencies
Shelling near site and damaged overhead lines near plant led to govt decision

A rescuer of the State Emergency Service helps local residents during an evacuation from a flooded village of Afanasiivka, following damage sustained at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam. Pic/AFP
Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency says it has put the last operating reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a “cold shutdown” a safety precaution amid catastrophic flooding from the collapse of a nearby dam as Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on through its 16th month. Russian forces continued pummelling the country with missiles and drones overnight, with Ukrainian officials reporting at least four deaths.
Five out of six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, are already in a state of cold shutdown, in which control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure.