Amid the ongoing Ukraine crisis, Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba stated that the only electrical grid to Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) is damaged and if not repaired on time it can cause imminent radiation leak leading to catastrophic damage.
The nuclear power plant is currently under Russian control.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as Ukraine’s breakaway regions. This has invoked strong condemnation from the West and other European countries. Many countries have imposed tough sanctions on Russia. More recently, the United States has refused to buy Russian oil.
Dmytro Kuleb urgently appealed to the international community to put pressure on Russia for a cease-fire and allow repair units to restore the power supply. He said that having failed to repair the electrical grid can lead to radiation leaks from the nuclear power plant.
“Reserve diesel generators have a 48-hour capacity to power the Chornobyl NPP. After that, cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent. Putin’s barbaric war puts entire Europe in danger. He must stop it immediately,” the foreign minister said.
History of Chernobyl
This is not the first time that Chernobyl was prone to radiation disaster. On April 26, 1989, near the city of Pripyat in the north of Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union, during a safety test, explosions were heard that resulted in a nuclear chain reaction and an enormous amount of poisonous radiation gases.
Within a few hours of the explosion, dozens of local people started falling sick, reporting severe headaches, metallic tastes in their mouths, uncontrollable coughing and vomiting. Many died and generations were impacted by the accident. It is considered one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
