New Delhi: Increased radiation levels have been recorded from the site of the decommissioned nuclear power plant Chernobyl in Ukraine – “due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area”.
Ukraine’s nuclear agency did not give out exact radiation levels, but said heavy movement had lifted radioactive dust in the area, Reuters reported.
Late Thursday night, Russian troops laid siege on the defunct power plant after a fierce battle with Ukrainian forces guarding the structure. The plant which has a forest cover – also known as the exclusion zone — is 130 kilometres north of capital Kyiv.
The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said the higher gamma radiation levels were from a “disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone…”
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told AP that airborne troops were protecting the plant to prevent any possible “provocations”. He insisted that radiation levels in the area have remained normal, the report said.
Ukraine informed the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency of the capture, adding that there were “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site”.
The Chernobyl disaster took place in 1986 when a reactor exploded, sending radioactive blasts across Europe. The damaged reactor was later covered in 2017 by a shield to contain radioactivity, but it continues to leak after the accident.
Ukraine uses the deserted zone as a storage facility for spent fuel from the country’s other nuclear plants.
The Chernobyl zone, a 2,600-square-km area of forest surrounding the closed plant, lies between Kyiv and the Belarus-Ukraine border.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashenko has warned that an attack on the plant could send radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus and countries of the EU, AP reported.
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