Reactor unit no.1 at Smolensk NPP was shut down after a malfunction at its electrical system on April 16th at 8:45 a.m., RIA Novosti reported, referring to Rosenergoatom press service.

Reactor unit no.1 had been under scheduled repair for the past five months. On Monday it was started up, but soon after the reactor reached the rated capacity of 1000 MW, it had to be shut down. Press service said that power reduction had been made correctly, radiation levels were reported to be normal. The press service also said the malfunction was caused by an operator error.

Smolensk NPP operates on three units with RBMK-1000 type reactors. Its total capacity is 3,000 MW. This year Smolensk NPP has already produced 4,968mn kW/hour, which is exceeding the planned rates by 105mn kW/hour. But malfunctions have already occurred lately: a failure was revealed in steam generator no.3 of the second reactor unit on March 6th.