Scientists say the Chernobyl plant was unharmed despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

According to nuclear experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations organization, the damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine as well as the country’s 15 operating reactors are ensure safety and ensure safety. set safety standards for nuclear reactors around the world and check their compliance.

“The only real problem is if a nearby target gets hit and does some collateral damage,” says Edwin Lyman, a reactor expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass. “I don’t see this as an imminent radioactive threat. I don’t think Russia will intentionally target a factory.”

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffer a crisis caused radioactive clouds to fly over parts of Europe and leave behind a locally contaminated wasteland. All four Chernobyl reactors still closed, and plant crews closely monitor the safety of Chernobyl’s Unit 4 reactor, which in 1986 exploded and caught fire. One prohibited areas Hundreds of square miles surround the abandoned factory to limit public access and habitation.

The sprawling factory – about 10 miles from Belarus, a Russian ally – is located on one of the Main routes of Russian invasion. Western experts say Moscow is in a position to keep Ukraine’s reactors and power systems running smoothly if its aim is regime change rather than national destruction.

“There is some danger of direct attack,” said R. Scott Kemp, a professor of nuclear science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “But I imagine they’ll do everything they can to avoid that because they don’t want to deal with the fallout.”

The bigger threat, Dr Kemp said, is the deterioration of Ukraine’s power grid, which could disrupt nuclear power plants and lead to intermittent power outages.

The Ukrainian government said Thursday on their official website that Russia’s invasion and its military takeover of Chernobyl “could cause another ecological disaster.” If the war continues, the government added, a disaster like Chernobyl “could happen again in 2022.”

However, nuclear experts have no hard-line alarms. Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, said in a statement on Thursday that the Ukrainian partner has reported that the country’s 15 nuclear power plants are operating safely. As for the Chernobyl site, he added, the Ukrainian agency reported “no casualties nor destruction.”

On Friday, the agency note reports of “higher radiation measurements at the Chernobyl site” and cites Ukraine’s nuclear agency as saying the readings could have been caused by heavy military vehicles stirring up the earth that the accident 1986 was poisoned.

The agency added that the stated indicators are “low and have remained within the measured range of activity in the Exclusion Zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to general public.”

According to the international atomic agency, Ukraine gets a little more half of its electricity from its reactors – an unusually high rate.

Two of Ukraine’s four nuclear activity sites are located in its western region – far from Russia main invasion routes and probably not harmful. The other two are in the southern sector, much closer to the ongoing military attacks.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Ukraine’s largest nuclear plant – has six separate reactors. It lies on the Dnieper River about 100 miles north of Crimea. Russia annexed the peninsular part of southern Ukraine in 2014 and the breakaway region serves as a base for Russian troops as well as a major invasion route.

Recently, World Nuclear Associationan industrial trade group based in London, report that Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company, detailed a number of rules aimed at enhancing the safety and security of its nuclear plants during wartime.

The group said earlier this month, as Russia built up forces around Ukraine, Petro KotinEnergoatom’s acting presidency, described how a bombing would cause a nuclear plant to close and said its operators would unload its radioactive fuel “until the threat is removed. “

Mr. Kotin added that if a plant loses external power, backup generators will operate to ensure uninterrupted control of the reactor. He was quoted as saying that Ukraine’s nuclear power plants “are ready for such a mode of operation: The amount of diesel fuel stored at nuclear power plants significantly exceeds the established standards.” “.

Mr Kotin added that Ukraine’s power plants are “ready even if the plane crashes” because the response ships and surrounding containment zones are designed to withstand such impacts.

On FridayThe World Nuclear Association reports that the security departments of the plants in Ukraine are “on high alert.”