How safe are the Russians who received high doses of radiation while in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone? The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is still not able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Russia took control of the area on February 24 and held it for five weeks before withdrawing.
Meanwhile, Ukraine told the IAEA that the process of resuming regulatory control of the Nuclear Power Plant has begun. They published footage which showed fortifications dug by Russian forces in the Exclusion Zone during their presence at the site. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that they could only undertake an independent radiological assessment once its experts are on the site.
Grossi said the IAEA also needs to urgently send its nuclear safety experts to the site to make their own assessment of the status of the Chernobyl NPP and restore online monitoring there, which was interrupted at the start of the conflict. The IAEA is prepared to send any other safety-related equipment and components to the NPP, where various radioactive waste management facilities are located, he added.
“It is of paramount importance that the IAEA travels to Chernobyl so that we can take urgent action to assist Ukraine in ensuring nuclear safety and security there,” he said. “I’m in close consultations with our Ukrainian counterparts to organize such a visit as soon as it is possible,” the chief said.
Regarding Ukraine’s 15 operational reactors at four sites, eight are currently connected to the grid, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya NPP, three at the Rivne NPP, two at the South Ukraine NPP, and one at the Khmelnytskyy NPP. The seven other reactors are shut down for regular maintenance or held in reserve.
The Agency said that it was still not receiving remote data transmission from its monitoring systems installed at the Chernobyl NPP, but was receiving such data from the other NPPs in Ukraine.
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