The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has to put reactor Unit 6 in cold shutdown which is expected to be reached by the weekend, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

According to a press release of the IAEA issued on Friday, the decision was made due to warmer weather. The two reactors were in hot shutdown during the winter to provide steam and heating to the ZNPP as well as heating to the nearby city of Enerhodar.

In addition, in its press release the IAEA said the scope of maintenance performed during outages on all units in 2022 was reduced compared to the planned scope due to reduced maintenance staff, absence of external contractors who perform a significant part of the work, and a lack of spare parts needed for the maintenance, including critical components.

ZNPP currently has only about a quarter of its regular maintenance staff available.

The IAEA said that the ZNPP continues to rely on the only remaining functioning 750 kilovolt (kV) power line for the external electricity it needs. Before the conflict, the plant had four such off-site power lines available.

A back-up 330 kV power line that was damaged on 1 March on the other side of the Dnipro River from the Russian-controlled ZNPP has still not been repaired, with Ukraine having said military action is preventing its experts from safely accessing the location.

The IAEA said that the nearby Zaporizhia Thermal Power Plant (ZTPP) operates the 330 kV open switchyard, through which back-up power has in the past been provided to the ZNPP. The Russian Federation reported last month that Rosatom was working to remove damaged equipment from the open switchyard, with the aim of restoring three 330 kV lines to the grid system in currently Russian-controlled territory.

The IAEA team has also identified extensive damage to windows in the turbine hall of Unit 4 in a location that appears inconsistent with being caused by the landmine explosions on April 16. The IAEA team aims at clarifying the cause of the damage.

On a more positive note, the water level in the Kakhovska Reservoir – which provides water for ZNPP reactor cooling – has gradually been increasing over the past two months and has now returned to normal level, 16.2 meters on 21 April.