Spain’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped on Monday when a massive blackout hit, but diesel generators were keeping them in “safe condition”, officials said.
The shutdown of the country’s nuclear plants was “in line with their design” when confronted with an unexpected power outage, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said in a statement.
That happened when the country suffered a national blackout around 12:30pm, halting trains, fouling traffic and delaying flights.
READ ALSO: What we know about the cause of Spain’s nationwide blackout
Four reactors at three nuclear power plants were in operation when the outage struck and immediately went offline.
Reactors at two other nuclear plants were already stopped before the blackout and generators were also maintaining basic functions safely, the CSN said.
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‘I can’t call my family’: How Spain was brought to a halt by blackout
