On April 2, second reactor unit at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania was shut down due leakage in the reactor cooling system. In connection to the incident the repair works on the first reactor unit planned for the beginning of April were postponed.

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is operating on two Soviet design RBMK-1500 reactors commissioned in 1983 and 1987. The plant covers some 80% of the electricity needs for the republic of Lithuania.

The emergency shut down at Ignalina was the forth incident of the kind RBMK-type reactors have experienced so far in 1998. Earlier this year there were two emergency shut downs at Kursk NPP and one at Leningrad NPP.