Ukraine has said that Chernobyl could be 48 hours away from the radiation leak, and called for a ceasefire to allow repairs to power lines. nuclear power plant.
The country had previously warned that radioactive material could be released if there was a power outage at the site of the world’s biggest nuclear disaster ever.
Russian forces occupied the plant early in the invasion, and state-run nuclear company Energoatom said it could not cool spent nuclear fuel without power.
“The reserve diesel generator has the capacity to power the Chornobyl NPP for 48 hours,” Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba said in a warning on Twitter.
‘After that, the storage facility’s cooling system for the spent nuclear fuel will be shut down, making radiation leakage imminent.’
Energoatom has said repairing the connection and restoring power to the plant is not possible as the fight is on.
Ukraine has warned that radioactive material could be released from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Image: The huge protective dome built over the coffin covering the destroyed fourth reactor
Energoatom said Chernobyl had about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies that could not be kept cool amid power outages.
Their heating can lead to a ‘release of radioactive materials into the environment’. The radioactive cloud can be carried by the wind to Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other regions of Europe.
Without electricity, the ventilation systems at the plant would not be working as well, giving workers dangerous doses of radiation.
Russia took control of the dormant nuclear plant on the first day of the invasion and has since occupied another nuclear site, the largest in Europe.
Energy operator Ukranergo also said their power had been completely cut off for the plant and its security systems.
The plant was “completely disconnected from the power grid,” Ukrenergo said in a statement on its Facebook page, adding that military operations meant “no possibility of restoring the lines”.
Nuclear material monitoring systems at radioactive waste facilities in Chernobyl in Ukraine have stopped transmitting data to the UN nuclear watchdog
On 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine and seized the dormant plant, the site of the 1986 disaster that killed hundreds of people and spread radioactive contamination across Europe.
On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, said the site was no longer transmitting data and expressed concern for staff working under the Russian Guard.
Citing Ukraine’s nuclear regulator, the IAEA said the staff’s condition was “deteriorating”.
The dormant plant sits inside an exclusion zone that houses dormant reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities.
More than 2,000 workers still work at the plant because it requires constant management to prevent another nuclear disaster.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday called for “forces to be placed under effective control at the site in order to immediately facilitate the safe rotation of personnel there.”
Russian forces surrounded and seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant last month, just days after the invasion of Ukraine began, and have since refused to leave the site for some 210 staff members. Pictured guarding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 26, 2022)
He reiterated his offer to visit Chernobyl or elsewhere to secure a “commitment to the safety and security” of Ukraine’s power plants from all sides.
“The Director-General indicated that remote data transmission from the monitoring system of safeguards installed at the Chernobyl NPP has been lost,” the IAEA said in a statement yesterday.
Security measures keep track of nuclear material and waste products generated by nuclear power plants.
The IAEA urged Russian officials to allow the release of the 210 staff members held captive at Chernobyl, arguing that although radiation levels in the area are relatively low, ensuring a ‘safe rotation’ of staff is essential.
It is said by the Vienna-based UN body that Ukrainian officials had reported an attack on a nuclear facility in Kharkiv on Sunday – although there was no increase in radiation levels at the site.