A reactor block at a nuclear power plant in southern Russia has been shut down for maintenance due to a steam generator failure, Russia's state nuclear energy firm Rosenergoatom said on Sunday.

"At 0920 (local time) on January 10 the first reactor block at Volgodon nuclear power plant has been shut down for maintenance," the firm said in a statement posted on its website www.rosenergoatom.ru.

The firm said the maintenance will last for approximately four days, and radiation levels in the area around the plant remained normal. It said the preliminary reason for maintenance was a leakage in the steam generator pipes.

Volgodon nuclear power plant, which went into operation in 2001 to become the first nuclear plant built in Russia since the Chernobyl disaster, currently operates two VVER reactor units. The second reactor block went into operation last December.

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