World alarm for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: Ukraine warns of the risk of radioactive leak

The Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo stated this Wednesday that the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl has been “totally disconnected” from the electricity grid following the recent operations carried out by Russian forces as part of their invasion of the country, which began on February 24.

“Due to the military actions of the Russian occupiers, the Chernobyl plant has been completely disconnected from the electrical grid,” the company said in a brief message posted on Telegram, collected by Ep. “The nuclear power plant has no electricity supply,” she added. “Military actions are underway, so there is no possibility of restoring the lines,” he said, adding that the town of Slavutich has also been left without power.

Hours earlier, Ukrenergo had pointed out in a statement published on its website that “the electrical system is stable.” “Ukrenergo and Oblenergos repair teams are repairing damaged lines and substations over and over again every day, finding ways to bring light to people when the infrastructure is totally destroyed,” he stressed.

In this sense, he had stressed that “enough electricity is produced to meet all the needs of the Army, households and other consumers.” “There is no need to save electricity,” he reviewed, while he stressed that the Zaporizhia and Chernobyl plants, controlled by Russian forces, continue to operate.

“The only electrical network that supplies the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and all its nuclear facilities, occupied by the Russian Army, has been damaged”

After that, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba, has highlighted that “the only electrical network that supplies the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and all its nuclear facilities, occupied by the Russian Army, has been damaged”. “The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has lost all power supply,” he confirmed.

“I ask the international community to immediately demand a ceasefire from Russia and allow the repair units to restore the electricity supply,” he said, before emphasizing that “reserve diesel generators have a capacity of 48 hours to supply the plant.

“After that, the cooling systems of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility will stop, which would make radiation leakage imminent,” he warned. “The barbaric war of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin endangers all of Europe. It must stop immediately,” he settled.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharovahas stated that the situation “is being exercised jointly by Russian troops, Ukrainian specialists, the civilian staff of the plant and the National Guard of that country,” according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Likewise, he has denied the information about a possible increase in radiation at the plant, while stressing that the operations at the Zaporizhia plant – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – are also under control.

“The actions of the Russian Army in this dangerous situation were motivated by the need to avoid a nuclear provocation by Ukrainian nationalists, who seem to have nothing to lose. In fact, they have been trained to do so. That is why the Russian troops are taking Ukraine’s nuclear facilities under its control,” he concluded.

During the day on Tuesday, the Ukrainian authorities asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for help to lead an international plan to replace the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, who have not yet rotated since Russia began the offensive. to Ukraine.

Subsequently, the Strategic Communications Center of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy indicated in its Telegram profile that it has lost contact with the remote transmission of data from the Chernobyl security control systems, after which the IAEA stressed that personnel must be able to rest, as this is “crucial to nuclear safety in general”.

“I am deeply concerned about the difficult and stressful situation faced by the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the potential risks that this implies for nuclear safety,” said the agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, who also called to “the forces in effective control of the site” to urgently allow staff rotation.

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.