The level of radioactivity at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant is “abnormal” and has increased after Russian troops occupied the area, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday (26th) during a visit to the Chernobyl plant.
“As for the radioactivity, I would say it’s abnormal. There were times when values rose due to the movement of heavy equipment that Russian forces brought here and when they left. We monitored them daily,” Grossi said.
The directorgeneral also condemned the severalweek occupation of the plant by Russian forces as “very, very dangerous”.
“The situation was absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous,” the head of that UN agency told reporters during his visit to Chernobyl, exactly 36 years after the worst nuclear disaster in history.
- VIDEO: Russians dug trenches in the most radioactive areas around Chernobyl, says Energoatom
- Russian troops are crossing Chernobyl exclusion zone to regroup in Belarus, Ukraine says
Grossi is accompanied on site by a group of specialists “to supply vital equipment” such as dosimeters and protective clothing and to carry out “radiological and other controls”.
These experts are expected to “repair remote surveillance systems that have stopped transmitting data to IAEA headquarters” in Vienna, Austria, shortly after the start of the war.
The Chernobyl power plant, 150 kilometers north of Kyiv, fell into Russian hands on February 24, the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, suffering a power and communication grid failure. Russian soldiers withdrew from the nuclear facility on March 31.
Since then, the situation has gradually returned to normal, according to daily IAEA reports based on information from Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency.
Rafael Grossi had already traveled to Ukraine at the end of March to lay the groundwork for a technical assistance agreement. On that occasion he visited the YuzhnoUkrainsk power plant in the south before meeting with Russian officials in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea coast.
Ukraine has 15 reactors at four operating plants, as well as landfills like that at Chernobyl power plant.
What is Chernobyl and why is the city important?
In 1986, a Chernobyl reactor exploded, contaminating much of Europe, but mostly Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The area designated as the exclusion zone within a 30kilometer radius around the plant is still heavily contaminated and it is forbidden to settle in this area.
Russian forces currently control the huge Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The latter was hit by artillery fire in late February, setting nearby buildings ablaze and stoking fears of disaster.
“Russia’s illegal and unjustified aggression in Ukraine once again threatens nuclear security on our continent,” warned EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell and EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson in a joint statement.
The two European authorities accuse the Russian armed forces of “ruthlessly damaging the affected nuclear facilities.”
According to Borrell and Simson, the disruption to normal operations, “including personnel rotation, jeopardizes the safe operation of nuclear power plants in Ukraine and significantly increases the risk of accidents.”
“On the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, we reiterate our gravest concern about the nuclear safety risks posed by recent Russian actions at the Chernobyl site,” they said.