Russia shuts down nuclear plant reactor unit after malfunction

Russia has reported the shutdown of a unit at a nuclear power plant after turbine blades broke.

Rosenergoatom, which runs Russia's nuclear power stations, said it was not clear what caused the blades to malfunction at the Leningrad nuclear power plant west of St Petersburg on Sunday.\


"The main thing now is to understand the reason for the destruction of the blades. This is a new phenomenon," Alexander Shutikov, head of Rosenergoatom, told Reuters. Repairs should be completed by December 22, he said.

The unit where the malfunction occurred was built in 2018 with a next-generation VVER 1200, a pressurised water reactor, according to the news agency.