The Ukrainian army indicated on Thursday February 24 that it had lost control of Chernobyl. The site of the worst nuclear accident in history, which occurred in 1986, is located 130km north of Kiev. What does this area look like today?
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Chernobyl is still a phantom zone, almost uninhabited for 30 km around, due to radioactivity. Only a few workers working on the site and some residents, returned illegally, live in the exclusion zone.
On site, a gigantic watertight arch covers the damaged reactor, and the plant has not produced electricity since the year 2000, but the radioactive waste from the four reactors is still stored on site, under water in five pools or at dry in warehouses.
Does the fighting in this area pose a danger, in terms of nuclear risk? In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was following the situation with great concern, indicating that it “is of vital importance that operations in this area are not affected or disrupted in any way.” The risk is not the same as during the 1986 nuclear accident, because there is no longer any energy produced within the reactor. But the danger would be that heavy weapon fire would affect the pools or warehouses housing the fuels, and that an explosion would cause the dispersion of radioactive particles, explains Yves Marignac, expert in nuclear issues at the Négawatt association.
It is very difficult to say whether this dispersion in the air would be limited to the local, regional scale or would go beyond, according to Karine Herviou, Deputy Director General of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), because it would depend on the force of the impact, the area affected, and the weather conditions. But even a local accident would be worrying because a rise in radioactivity would make the Chernobyl site difficult to access for the personnel responsible for its maintenance and security.
At home, the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety is therefore monitoring the situation closely, in particular via a French and European network of beacons. Organizations that measure the level of radioactivity in the atmosphere.