All six reactor units at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station are now in cold shutdown for the first time since late 2022 after Unit 4 reached this operational state early on Saturday (13 April), International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said.

Operators began moving Unit 4 from hot to cold shutdown on Friday morning, a process that was completed at 07:30 on Saturday. The facility’s management decided to take this step after the nearby town of Enerhodar – where most plant staff live – recently ended the winter heating season.

Zaporizhzhia stopped generating electricity for the national grid in September 2022, but it has kept at least one of its six units in hot shutdown since October 2022 to provide district heating and process steam for liquid waste treatment at the site.