Preventing another catastrophe was Valeriy Semenov’s main concern when Russian troops rolled their tanks into Chernobyll, scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
(Read: The ‘Chernobyl of Mexico’, where the largest nuclear incident in America happened)
He and dozens of employees remained working during the 35 days of occupationin which the activity of the invading soldiers caused an increase in radioactivity levels.
(You are interested in: The ‘chief decontaminator’ of the Chernobyl accident dies)
Tanks, armored trucks and dozens of Russian soldiers stationed themselves in the exclusion zone on February 24 and took over the nuclear power plant, something that would come after the deployment of more than a thousand soldiers who committed all kinds of imprudence in one of the areas with the highest levels of radioactivity on the planet.
But Semenovthe engineer in charge of safety and maintenance at the nuclear plant, decided to continue with his work despite the threats he received from the Russians during the 35 days of occupationin which he had to work shifts of almost 24 hours a day to ensure that there were no radioactive leaks that would unleash another disaster like the one in 1986.
“We are not just talking about the security of this city, but of the whole of Ukraine. Anything that happened to Chernobyl was going to affect the rest of the country”, assures this engineer in a telephone interview with Efe.
Play with fire
Anything that happened inside the plant, if they had damaged it, there would be radiation leaks that would have affected us a lot. He was a great threat.
When Russian troops entered Chernobyl, the 177 Ukrainian soldiers guarding the area handed over their weapons for two reasonsaccording to Semenov: because the invaders had more weapons and because shooting inside the nuclear power plant is literally playing with fire.
After hours of negotiation with the Russians, they reached an agreement to allow maintenance experts to continue their work to ensure the safety of the site, especially the sarcophagus that contains the nuclear reactor partially destroyed in the accident 36 years ago.
But as a bargaining chip, they took 169 Ukrainian soldiers hostage, who were transported in trucks to an unknown location, possibly Belarus or Russia, according to authorities.
lethal recklessness
One of Semenov’s main tasks during the occupation was “observe the Russians” and warn them of the danger in the area. But it was all in vain because the soldiers, all of them very young, “were very curious” about what they were finding in Chernobyl.
They looted all sorts of gadgets, tampered with contaminated objects, and even tinkered with relics from a small display of equipment operating in 1986, which they also used to reinforce barricades at the nuclear plant.
What surprised Semenov the most was that the Russians used the trunks of the so-called Red Forest – a wooded area that absorbed huge amounts of radiation after the accident and is now one of the most contaminated areas on the planet – to make fires, shelters and fortifications.
After they had been doing this for a week we had to beg them to stop because they were increasing the radiation levels, and that is very dangerous.
There too dug trenches, kicked up polluted dust in their wake with tanks and trucks and set up checkpoints.
According to the head of the Ukrainian State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone, Yevhen Kramarenko, the Russian troops who barricaded themselves in Chernobyl “will experience the consequences” in the long term of having been exposed to radioactivity.
Radiation levels have not been adequately measured, in part also because the Russians stole the workers’ dosimeters and cut off all plant communications.
Semenov continued to work at Chernobyl even after Russian troops withdrew on March 31.and assures that “at this time, there is no danger for the employees” because, to his relief, the occupants “did not commit major violations of international law.”
“Now there is no longer any danger for the facility or for the entire country. In my opinion, we did a great job negotiating and policing, and that is why we are safe, ”she says.
Grossi warns of a dangerous increase in radiation
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday condemned the occupation by Russian forces for several weeks of the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine as “very, very dangerous”.
“The situation was absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous,” the head of the UN agency, Argentine Rafael Grossi, told reporters during a visit to the damaged plant in 1986, on the anniversary of the tragedy.
Grossi is accompanied on site by a group of experts “to deliver vital equipment” (dosimeters, protective suits) and carry out “radiological and other controls,” the IAEA had indicated last Friday.
These experts must “repair the remote surveillance systems, which stopped transmitting data to the headquarters” of the OAS in Vienna (Austria) shortly after the start of the war. The Russian army had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 150 km north of kyiv, on the first day of Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, it was withdrawn at the end of March. Since then, the situation has gradually returned to normal, according to IAEA daily reports based on information from the Ukrainian regulator.
Grossi had already traveled to Ukraine at the end of March to lay the groundwork for an agreement to provide technical assistance.
EU warns of risk of ‘new nuclear disaster’
The European Union (EU) warned on Tuesday about the possibility of a new nuclear disaster in Ukraine36 years after the Chernobyl explosion, due to the Russian offensive, and asked Moscow to refrain from attacks in that sector.
Russian forces control Ukraine’s huge Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which in late February had been hit by artillery fire that set nearby buildings on fire and raised fears of disaster.
“Russia’s illegal and unjustified aggression in Ukraine once again endangers nuclear security on our continent,” the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and the Estonian European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri, warned in a joint statement. simon.
In 1986, we saw in Chornobyl one of the most horrific nuclear incidents in history. Today, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine jeopardizes nuclear safety.
We call on Moscow to return control of Zaporizhzhia plant and refrain from any actions against nuclear facilities.@KadriSimson https://t.co/4XEY3ZVFov
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 26, 2022
On the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in 1986, we reiterate our utmost concern about the risks to nuclear safety caused by recent Russian actions at the site.
The two European officials accuse Russian forces of having “recklessly damaged the facilities” of the attacked nuclear sites.
According to Borrell and Simson, the interruption of normal operations, “including the prevention of staff turnover, jeopardizes the safe operation of nuclear power plants in Ukraine and significantly increases the risk of accidents.”
Ukraine has 15 reactors at four operating plantsin addition to waste deposits such as Chernobyl.
“We welcome and fully support the IAEA’s efforts to provide assistance, at the request of the Ukrainian government,” Borrell and Simson wrote in their note.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
More world news
– Debanhi Escobar: the doubts left by the case that shocked Mexico
– CPI rejects Venezuela’s petition and will continue investigation for crimes
– After Palestinian attack, Israel will close the passage with the Gaza Strip
#situation #Chernobyl #Russian #withdrawal #plant