Last Reactor Shut Down at Ukraine's Largest Nuclear Plant as Fighting, Flooding Continues

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraines nuclear energy agency says it has put the last operating reactor at Europes largest nuclear power plant into a cold shutdown a safety precaution amid catastrophic flooding from the collapse of a nearby dam as Russia's war on Ukraine drags on through its 16th month.

Russian forces continued pummeling the country with missiles and drones overnight, with Ukrainian officials reporting at least four deaths and damage to a military airfield.

Five out of six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, are already in a state of cold shutdown, in which all control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear agency, said in a statement late Friday that there was no direct threat to the Zaporizhzhia plant due to the breach of the Kakhovka dam further down the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands of people to flee flooding and also sharply reduced water levels in a reservoir used to help cool the facility.