![]() The power plant site also houses the main electrical grid switching network for the entire region. The reactor site’s industrial area is, in effect, a large parking lot suitable for staging an invading army’s thousands of vehicles. The Chernobyl zone abuts Belarus and is thus immune from attack from Ukrainian forces from the north. ![]() It is a large, unpopulated area connected by a paved highway straight to the Ukrainian capital, with few obstacles or human developments along the way. In hindsight, the strategic benefits of basing military operations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone seem obvious. Looks can be deceiving, at least in areas of high radioactivity, where bird, mammal and insect population sizes and diversity are significantly lower than in the “clean” parts of the exclusion zone. I have been asked many times over the past days why Russian forces entered northern Ukraine via this atomic wasteland, and what the environmental consequences of military activity in the zone might be.Some scientists have suggested the zone has become an Eden for wildlife, while others are skeptical of that possibility. I’ve spent more than 20 years working in Ukraine, as well as in Belarus and Fukushima, Japan, largely focused on the effects of radiation. ![]() In some areas, where radiation levels have dropped over time, plants and animals have returned in significant numbers. Put in place to contain the radioactive contaminants, the exclusion zone also protects the region from human disturbance.Īpart from a handful of industrial areas, most of the exclusion zone is completely isolated from human activity and appears almost normal. On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl’s reactor number four melted down as a result of human error, releasing vast quantities of radioactive particles and gases into the surrounding landscape – 400 times more radioactivity to the environment than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. "We fully support the appeal and demand of the #IAEA Director General that shelling of the town of Enerhodar and the #ZNPP must stop immediately," its ambassador to the IAEA Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter.The site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine has been surrounded for more than three decades by a 1,000-square-mile (2,600-square-kilometer) exclusion zone that keeps people out. And as a consequence, the operator would not be able to re-start the reactors unless offsite power was reliably re-established," he added. "The entire power plant would then be fully reliant on emergency diesel generators for ensuring vital nuclear safety and security functions. Zaporizhzhia's operator is not confident that off-site power can be restored and that is prompting it to consider shutting down the last operating reactor, Grossi said. Grossi this week called for the creation of a "nuclear safety and security protection zone" around Zaporizhzhia, repeating his call on Friday. Only this will ensure the safety and security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant." "I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for shelling near Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine and within the perimeter of Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, which has six reactors. He described the current situation at the plant as "very difficult", citing "torture" of staff and "beatings of personnel". We do not know where about ten people are now, they were taken (by the Russians) and after that we have no information about their whereabouts," Kotin said, adding about 200 people had been detained. "A regime of harassment of personnel was gradually established," following the Russian takeover, Petro Kotin said. ![]() Russian forces controlling Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have killed two staff at the facility and detained and abused dozens of others, the head of Ukraine's nuclear energy agency told AFP on Friday. And we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement. "This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious. That has prompted Ukraine to say it may have to shut down the last operating reactor supplying power to Zaporizhzhia including the cooling systems for the plant's nuclear fuel. The plant's offsite power lines, vital lines of defence against potential nuclear meltdown, have already been cut and the shelling at Enerhodar has caused a lasting blackout there.
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