State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the loss of control over nuclear and radiation facilities in the Chernobyl NPP exclusion zone as a result of a military attack. The station staff is held hostage, according to Alena Sevcova. The military unit #3041 has been disarmed, reports Interfax.
The condition of the plant’s facilities, a confinement shelter and storage of nuclear waste is unknown. There is an “absolutely senseless attack of the Russians in this direction, it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe,” warns Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (according to the Associated Press).
“This is one of the most serious threats in Europe today,” Podolyak said.
Russian troops took over the power plant while Ukrainian forces battled them on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.
Some Russian military massed in the Chernobyl “exclusion zone” before crossing into Ukraine early on Thursday, a Russian security source said.
Russia wants to control the Chernobyl nuclear reactor to signal NATO not to interfere militarily, the same source said.
Olga Kosharnaya was involved in creating a document, “The Design Basis Threat for Nuclear Power Plants.” “This is a top-secret document; it is adopted at the presidential level,” said Olga Kosharnaya. If the Russian military blows up a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the consequences will affect Russia first and foremost, as far as the Urals. And Europe.
Photo by Romain Chollet
According to the regulator, Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and other nuclear and radiation facilities are objects of peaceful use of nuclear energy and are not intended for military operations and should not be attacked under Article 56 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts.
The nuclear facility “Subcritical collection based neutron source controlled by a linear electron gas pedal” in Kharkiv was put into a deep subcritical state by the operational staff and is in normal safe mode.
The research reactor of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv has been stopped and brought to a safe condition and is under the protection and defense of the National Guard of Ukraine.
In addition, according to the Enegoatom, Ukrainian nuclear power plants are operating in normal mode.
Russia has launched a barrage of missile, artillery and air attacks on Ukraine early Thursday, February 24, 2022, triggering the worst security crisis Europe has witnessed in decades. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry warned that the capital, Kyiv, was being targeted and urged citizens to go to shelters. Ukraine’s border guard said that it was being shelled from five regions, including from Crimea in the south and Belarus to the north, and that Russian forces had crossed into the country.