With the occupation of Ukraine by Russian military forces, observers fear for the safety of the country’s nuclear installations, beginning with the infamous Chornobyl station—shuttered but still radioactive—but also extending to nuclear waste facilities, and operating reactors responsible for over half of the country’s electricity generation.
Speaking at a February 26 webinar hosted by DiaNuke, Russian physicist and activist Andrey Ozharovsky said monitoring reports on February 24 and 25 showed a spike in radiation from the Chornobyl site, 30 times above normal levels.
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The continuing status and reason for the spike are unknown, he said. Russia maintains the Chornobyl site was captured peacefully, but other sources indicate fighting occurred. A train carrying Chornobyl employees was blocked en route to the site, Ozharovsky said.
The official statement is that radiation levels have increased due to dust disturbed by Russian tanks. “Maybe. Maybe not,” Ozharovsky said. “I think dust from tanks cannot explain the magnitude of the problem.”
The Energy Intelligence website reported Russian claims that background radiation levels in the area of the nuclear plant are “normal”. The International Atomic Energy Agency said “the readings reported by the regulator—of up to 9.46 microSieverts per hour—are low and remain within the operational range measured in the Exclusion Zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to the public.” However, Energy Intelligence cited U.S. radiation health specialist Cindy Folkers, who said current levels would convert to an annual exposure of 83 milliSieverts. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)’s recommended limit is 1 mSv per year.
“We have more questions than answers,” Ozharovsky told an audience of about 45 webinar participants. “Who is in charge?” There has been no statement about who is responsible from either the Ukrainian or Russian nuclear agencies, he said.
“We have nuclear plants in a battlefield,” he added, creating the danger of “intentional or unintentional” damage from armaments.
The IAEA, which includes both Russia and Ukraine as members, said it is following the situation in Ukraine. It warned that “any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Statute of the Agency.”
Ozharovsky said the IAEA has been “passive” and should be asked by its member states to clarify who is responsible for the site, and determine the status and cause of the radiation spike. He said the IAEA could assume stewardship of nuclear facilities in Ukraine and bring in third-party experts to restore confidence that safety is not compromised. The Russian army says the physical integrity of the Chornobyl site has been secured, but has not addressed regulatory or engineering security, he said.
Energy Intelligence says the Russian invasion puts in question plans to transfer spent fuel from the undamaged Chornobyl reactors, and from the country’s 15 operating reactors, to a new storage facility. Planning for the transfer took more than a decade, and removal of the spent fuel from the Chornobyl reactors began just last June. The full transfer was expected to take 10 years to complete.
Meanwhile, the IAEA said Russian missiles hit a radioactive waste disposal site in Kyiv, The Associated Press reported Sunday. Grossi said the agency “expects to soon receive the results of on-site radioactive monitoring,” AP wrote. An electrical transformer at a similar site in Kharkiv was damaged Saturday.
This kind of facility would usually hold low-level radioactive waste from hospitals and industry, AP added. But Grossi pointed to the “very real risk” of “potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment” if the sites are damaged.
