Concerns over Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine are mounting. The power supply has been cut, and the cooling systems are in danger of shutting down. The Ukrainian government has asked Russia for a ceasefire to restore the power cable to the plant. If the power outage continues, there could be a radiation leak, she warned.
Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom said fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces made it impossible to repair the high-voltage cable to Chernobyl. The nuclear power plant is owned by the Russians. If the plant cannot cool the nuclear fuel, radioactive material could leak out, Energoatom warned.
The diesel generators that function as a back-up for the regular supply, and which still provide power to the nuclear power plant, can only sustain this for 48 hours. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said. “After that, the cooling systems shut down, threatening radiation leaks,” Kuleba said on Twitter.
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However, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said the power outage will not have a critical impact on safety. “The heat from the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water at Chernobyl are sufficient for effective heat removal without electrical supplies,” the IAEA said in a statement.
Radioactive cloud
However, according to Energoatom, there is a significant amount of nuclear fuel on Chernobyl that is not kept cool during a power outage. If this warms up, it could lead to the release of radioactive substances into the environment. The radioactive cloud could be carried by the wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe,” the nuclear company said in a statement. In addition, without power, the ventilation systems would no longer work, exposing personnel to dangerous doses of radiation.
The IAEA warned Tuesday that the systems monitoring nuclear material at Chernobyl had stopped sending data. According to the Ukrainian grid operator, power cables have been damaged by shelling.
The nuclear watchdog had already raised the alarm about the situation at the nuclear power plant where the worst nuclear disaster in history took place in 1986; This is because the 210 technicians and security staff have been working in the plant for almost two weeks without interruption. Since the Russian takeover, there would no longer be a change of teams.
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