The first accident at the plant occurred shortly after the first unit came online. On 7 January 1975, a concrete tank containing radioactive gases from Unit 1 exploded; there were no reported accident victims or radiation releases. Less than a month later, on 6 February 1975, the secondary cooling circuit of Unit 1 ruptured, releasing contaminated water into the environment. Three people were killed, and the accident was not reported in the media. The commission investigating the incident made several recommendations to improve safety of RBMK reactors, but they were not implemented. In July 1976 and again in September 1979, due to a poor safety culture, a fire broke out in a concrete vault containing
radioactive waste. Water used in extinguishing the fires was contaminated, leaked into the environment, and entered the water table. This was not reported in the media. On 27 August 2009, the third unit was stopped when a hole was found in the discharge header of a pump. According to the automated radiation control system, the radiation situation at the plant and in its monitoring zone was normal. On 19 December 2015, unit 2 was stopped (
scrammed) due to a broken steam pipe. No radioactively contaminated material was released. ==Electricity generation==