Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant was left without electricity due to attacks by Russian troopsthe Ukrenergo National Energy Company stated on its Telegram account on Wednesday.
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“As a result of the hostile actions of the Russian occupiers, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was completely without electricity,” the Ukrainian operator said in a message collected by the Ukrinform agency.
“The fighting continues, so it is currently impossible to carry out repair work and restore the power supply,” adds the state company.
The energy company assures that it is closely monitoring the situation and will inform if there are any changes in the situation of this plant, the protagonist of the largest nuclear accident in the history of Europe.
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According to the Kiev government, the Russian Army violated radiological safety requirements at the nuclear power plant when it occupied it next to the so-called exclusion zone.
The former nuclear power plant, located in an exclusion zone due to radioactivity from the 1986 accident, includes decommissioned reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities.
Is there any risk?
The power failure at the old Chernobyl power plant, taken over by Russian troops during their invasion of Ukraine, does not represent a “critical impact on security”assessed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
This UN agency considers that the thermal load of the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water of the nuclear power plant “are sufficient to effectively remove the heat without the need for an electrical supply”.
The IAEA, which has been warning for days of the danger posed by Russian military attacks near Ukrainian nuclear facilities, assured on the social network Twitter that this situation violates an essential pillar of nuclear security, that of maintaining the electricity supply.
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Despite this risk, he pointed out that “in this case the IAEA does not see a critical impact on security.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry warned today that, after the drop in supply at the plant, the reserve generators have the capacity to keep the used fuel pool cooling systems running for only 48 hours.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that this situation made “a radioactive leak imminent.” “The barbaric war of Putin (the Russian president) puts all of Europe in danger. It has to stop immediately,” Kuleba claimed.
EFE
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