NEW DELHI, Feb 25: Ukraine lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site after the Ukrainian forces waged a fierce battle with Russian troops, a Presidential adviser said on Friday.
The adviser Myhailo Podolyak told the media that Ukrainian authorities did not know the current condition of the facilities at Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “After the absolutely senseless attack of the Russians in this direction, it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had announced several hours earlier on Thursday that Russian forces were trying to seize the Chernobyl nuclear plant. A Ukrainian official said Russian shelling hit a radioactive waste repository and an increase in radiation levels was reported. Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashenko warned that any attack on the waste repository could send radioactive dust over “the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and countries of the European Union.”
Ukraine’s nuclear energy regulatory agency said higher than usual gamma radiation levels have been detected in the area near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant, after it was seized by the Russian military. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said Friday that higher gamma radiation levels have been detected in the Chernobyl zone, but didn’t provide details of the increase.
It attributed the rise to a “disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air.” Ukrainian authorities said Russia took the plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle Thursday.
Russian officials, who have revealed little of their operations in Ukraine and not disclosed their goals, did not publicly comment on the battle. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian airborne troops were protecting the plant to prevent any possible “provocations.” He insisted that radiation levels in the area have remained normal.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was told by Ukraine of the takeover, adding that there had been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site.” Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, said, “I can’t imagine how it would be in Russia’s interest to allow any facilities at Chernobyl to be damaged.” In an interview, Lyman said he was most worried about the spent fuel stored at the site, which has not been active since 2000. If the power to cooling pumps is disrupted or fuel-storage tanks are damaged, the results could be catastrophic, he said.
It’s expected to take until 2064 to finish dismantling the reactors. Ukraine decided to use the deserted zone as the site for its centralized storage facility for spent fuel from the country’s other remaining nuclear power plants.
A nuclear reactor at the plant 130 kilometres north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, exploded in April 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. The exploded reactor was covered by a protective shelter several years ago to prevent radiation leaks. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a 2,600-square-kilometer zone of forest surrounding the shuttered plant, lies between the Belarus-Ukraine border and the Ukrainian capital.
(Manas Dasgupta)