Power was cut off at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said, blaming Russian invading forces for the blackout and warning it could lead to a “nuclear release.”
The UN-backed International Nuclear Watch Agency, the IAEA, downplays fears of an imminent radioactive release, but Ukrainian This was reported by the National Emergency Management Agency. if the plant’s cooling systems, which keep the spent nuclear fuel safely in the water, are not powered, it could create a “radioactive cloud” that would fall on “other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe.”
The Chernobyl power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, “was completely disconnected from the grid,” Ukraine’s national energy operator Ukrenergo said in a statement on its Facebook page on Wednesday, adding that hostilities meant “no it was possible to restore the lines.”
Terrifying photos of Chernobyl and its consequences 45 photos
Radioactive substances could be expelled from the plant if it is unable to cool the spent nuclear fuel, state-owned Energoatom, which operates all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, has said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Galushchenko said authorities in Kyiv could not confirm anything about the status of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant because monitoring systems had failed. He stressed that the power supply needed to be restored “as soon as possible”, but added that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, like all Ukrainian nuclear power plants, has a system of diesel generators designed to keep the main systems running in the event of a power outage.
“It is possible to serve several days using diesel generators,” Galushchenko told the BBC.
This photo, taken December 8, 2020, shows a general view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the giant protective dome built over the sarcophagus of the destroyed fourth reactor. GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on “the entire international community to immediately demand a ceasefire from Russia and allow repair crews to restore power supply” to Chernobyl as soon as possible.
He said the backup generators could only run for 48 hours.
“After that, the spent nuclear fuel storage cooling systems will shut down, making radiation leaks inevitable,” Kuleba wrote in a series of tweets. “Putin’s barbaric war endangers the whole of Europe. He must stop it immediately!”
Backup diesel generators are designed for 48 hours of operation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. After that, the cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, which will make radiation leaks inevitable. Putin’s barbaric war endangers the whole of Europe. He must stop this immediately! 2/2
— Dmitry Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 9, 2022
Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said earlier Wednesday that “remote transmission of data from safeguards monitoring systems” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant “has been lost” and that the global nuclear surveillance agency is “looking into the status” of the monitoring system in other locations in Ukraine .
But the IAEA downplayed immediate concerns about a possible radioactive release at Chernobyl on Wednesday, saying it sees no “critical safety impact” at the plant and citing a report released by the agency on March 3 that said: “Because of the elapsed time after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the spent fuel pool heat load and the volume of cooling water contained in the pool is sufficient to maintain efficient heat removal without the need for electricity.”
The IAEA reports the heat load of the spent fuel pool and the volume of cooling water per #Chernobyl A nuclear power plant is sufficient to effectively remove heat without supplying electricity. IAEA Update 3 March: https://t.co/x5IlduZQOn
— IAEA — International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) March 9, 2022
This report also mentioned backup generators “in the event of a total loss of power”.
Russian forces quickly captured the Chernobyl site after the invasion began on 24 February. Ukrainian officials said a group of nuclear plant operators who ensure safe work at the decommissioned facility were still trying to do their job this week, but on orders from Russian troops. .
Russia captured Europe’s largest nuclear power plant 04:18
Since then, Russia has taken over another Ukrainian nuclear power plant – fully operational and the largest in Europe.
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