Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not damaged during its occupation by Russian soldiers, but they likely exposed themselves to radiation including digging trenches in the contaminated area, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday
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Asked about the subject, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said “not being able to confirm” this information. The UN body will “attempt to obtain additional elements in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation”, according to a press release.
“The level of radiation around the plant is currently normal,” Grossi told reporters in Vienna.
Troop withdrawals could, however, have resulted in “localized” increases in radiation due to the movement of vehicles, he said, such as when the Russian army seized the site on the first day of the offensive on 24 February.
Mr. Grossi had just returned from a stay in Ukraine and Russia, where he negotiated with the authorities of each country a “framework” to deploy equipment and experts in Ukrainian nuclear installations. And he hopes to be able to lead a mission “very, very soon” to Chernobyl.
The plant, scene in 1986 of the biggest nuclear disaster in history, was released Thursday during the withdrawal of Russian forces from this area north of Kyiv.
“All the equipment is working”, as well as “all the radiation control and monitoring systems”, said the director of the plant Valery Seïda, quoted in a press release from the Ukrainian atomic energy agency Energoatom.
No problem was observed, either concerning the sarcophagus which covers damaged reactor No. 4, or the storage of radioactive material.
The Russian soldiers “took away five of the 15 containers of spare parts for the plant”, he said.
“Irresponsibility” of Moscow
But above all, in this forbidden zone heavily contaminated by the 1986 disaster, they were exposed to probably large doses of radiation, assure the Ukrainians.
“The thick dust that their vehicles made rise in the air and the radioactive particles which it contains could have easily penetrated the body of the Russians by their lungs”, said Mr. Seïda.
Worse, they seem to have dug trenches in the “red forest”, the most contaminated area.
“It is therefore entirely possible that they suffered considerable radiation contamination,” according to Energoatom.
As such, as with the general security of the facilities, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba denounced Moscow’s “irresponsibility” in a separate statement to the press in Warsaw.
“Russia has shown irresponsibility on all fronts, from refusing to allow plant personnel to fully perform their duties, to digging trenches in the contaminated area,” he said.
The plant’s number 4 reactor exploded in 1986, causing the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history. It is covered with a double sarcophagus: one built by the Soviets is now damaged, the other, more modern, was inaugurated in 2019.
The plant’s other three reactors were gradually shut down after the disaster, the last in 2000.