Ukraine said on Friday it recorded worrying radiation data at the damaged Chernobyl power plant, which fell into the hands of the Russian army the day before, Moscow saying for its part that everything was under control there.
“There was an increase in the indicators beyond the control levels at 3:20 a.m. (local time),” deputy director of the Ukrainian department for nuclear installation security issues, Alexander Grigorach, told AFP.
“But we can’t check, because all the staff have been evacuated,” he said, reached by telephone.
The Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, also indicated on social networks that the automated control system had reported an increase in “gamma rays”, a sign of radioactivity, without specifying the level.
Data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone, which is available online, indicate that the control levels of gamma radiation dose rate (red dots) have been exceeded at a significant number of observation points. pic.twitter.com/G4WEGgkMcT
— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (@ua_parliament) February 25, 2022
“Because of the occupation and hostilities, it is currently impossible to establish the reasons” for these readings, he said.
A spokesperson for the Russian army assured him that there was no need to worry about the safety of the reactor which exploded in 1986, irradiating part of Europe, nor its sarcophagus, ensuring, contrary to the Ukrainian side, that the staff were still there.
A cooperation agreement?
“An agreement has been reached with a battalion of the Atomic Energy Security Force of Ukraine for the joint securing of the energy blocks and the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” said Igor Konashenkov, the Spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
“Radiation in the area of the nuclear power plant is within the norm”, he assured, saying that “the personnel of the power plant […] monitor the situation with radioactivity”.
Cooperation between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers to ensure the security of the plant “is a guarantee that nationalist formations or other terrorist organizations will not be able to use the situation in the country to organize a nuclear provocation”, added the spokesperson. word.
The worst nuclear accident in history took place on April 26, 1986 in Ukraine, then one of the fifteen Soviet republics, when a reactor of this plant, located about a hundred kilometers from Kiev, exploded, contaminating up to three quarters from Europe, especially Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Nearly 350,000 people had to be evacuated from a perimeter of 30 kilometers around the plant. The human toll remains controversial.