On September 5 at 14:07 the power unit ?1 of the Balakovo nuclear power plant was unloaded to the power of 300 MW.

Power reduction and unloading of the power unit ?1 was made by the effect of automatic equipment, because of the initial failure of thermal mechanical equipment in a compressed air system in strict accordance with the design algorithm,.

According to the international rating scale INES this event corresponds to the "out of scale" and is classified as having no value to the environment and the population. There were no violations of limits and conditions of safe operation.

Radiation situation in the area of the Balakovo NPP is without changing, figures correspond to the natural background radiation values for the European part of Russia.   There are power units ??1, 2 and 3 operating at the moment at the Balakovo NPP, with a total load of 2300 MW. The power unit ?4 is in a planned maintance.  Current information about the work of the station Balakovo is available on web-site www.rosenergoatom.ru.  Current information about a radiation situation near the nuclear power plant in Russia and other objects of the nuclear industry is provided on a site www.russianatom.ru.