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Chernobyl reactor shut down till Thursday

KIEV: The Chernobyl nuclear plant's only working reactor was shut down early on Saturday for five days of work to repair a leak in the turbine system, plant duty engineer Andri Bilyk told AFP.

Reactor number 3 began winding down at 11:00 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Friday ahead of the shutdown at 4:02 a.m. (0202 GMT) on Saturday. It will be up and running again on February 3.

No radioactivity has been detected from the steam leak in the turbine system, the plant's directors said in a statement on Friday.

Of the original four reactors at the plant, only number 3 is still producing electricity.

In 1999, it was operational for five months and under repair for the remainder of the time. AFP