Ukraine warns Chernobyl could be leaking radiation soon

Ukraine warns Chernobyl could be leaking radiation soon
March 9, 2022, 6:31 pm

Ukraine warns Chernobyl could be leaking radiation soon (File photo: Euromaidan Press)

The Arab News reported, citing Reuters, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company Energoatom said on Wednesday that radioactive substances could be released from Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant because it cannot cool spent nuclear fuel after its power connection was severed.

It said fighting made it impossible to immediately repair the high-voltage power line to the plant, which was captured by Russian forces after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Energoatom said there were about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies at Chernobyl that could not be kept cool amid a power outage.

It said in a statement, their warming could lead to “the release of radioactive substances into the environment. The radioactive cloud could be carried by wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe."

Russian Federation damaged or destroyed 202 schools, 34 hospitals, more than 1,500 residential buildings, including apartment buildings. More than 900 of our settlements are without electricity, water and heat - Mykhailo Podoliak, Presidential Office (File photo and text: Euromaidan Press)

It added that without power, ventilation systems at the plant would also not be working, exposing staff to dangerous doses of radiation.

On Tuesday, the UN nuclear watchdog warned that the systems monitoring nuclear material at the radioactive waste facilities at Chernobyl had stopped transmitting data.

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The still-radioactive site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster lies some 100 km (62 miles) from Kyiv.

Its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986 during a botched safety test, sending clouds of radiation billowing across much of Europe.

Source: arabnews

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