Ukraine has called for a ceasefire to repair the Chernobyl power line amid radiation risk.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was completely shut down on Wednesday due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine has blamed a power outage in the region for a power outage at the plant, which could affect systems for cooling nuclear materials. The cause of the power outage was not immediately known. This raises new concerns for Europe as a whole.
As Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, was occupied by Russian forces, Ukrainian troops launched an immediate counterattack and took control. But, it has been recaptured by Russian forces.
Key announcements at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:
At present, emergency generators supply the required power to the nuclear power plant. In this context, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has called for a ceasefire. He said the government could thus repair the power line needed for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In a tweet, he said, “The diesel generator running Chernobyl NPP has a capacity of 48 hours. After that, the cooling system of the storage facility for the spent nuclear fuel will automatically shut off, so that the radiation leak will start immediately.”
Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenerko said the diesel generator would hold fuel for 48 hours until electricity came on, after which nuclear and radiation safety parameters could not be controlled.
Chernobyl had about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies that could not be cooled in the midst of a power outage, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state-run nuclear company.
Energoatom explains that due to global warming, radioactive materials can be released into the environment. “Radio clouds can travel through the air to Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe,” it said in a statement.
The UN Nuclear Monitoring Organization warned Tuesday that nuclear material monitoring systems at radioactive waste plants in Chernobyl have stopped sending data.