Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on Russia to agree to a cease-fire to allow repairs to the Chernobyl power plant after it was fully cut off from the electrical grid, raising the risk of radiation leaks, according to RFE/RL.
Ukraine‘s national energy company, Ukrenergo, said on Wednesday that electricity to the plant was cut off due to a disruption of an electricity line connecting the Chernobyl nuclear plant with the electricity supplier in Kyiv.
The outage puts at risk some 20 tons of waste that must be constantly cooled to keep radiation leaking and potentially endangering “Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe.”
“The entire power supply line of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and all its nuclear facilities controlled by the Russian Army has been damaged,” Kuleba said on Twitter.
“Chernobyl has lost power. I call on the entire international community to immediately call on Russia to cease fire and allow repair crews to restore the electricity supply as soon as possible,” he said, noting reserve diesel generators had a 48-hour capacity to power the plant, after which the cooling systems will stop, “making radiation leaks imminent.”
U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday that the loss of power at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not have any critical impact on safety, Reuters reports.
“Heat load of spent fuel storage pool and volume of cooling water at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sufficient for effective heat removal without need for electrical supply,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.
The cause of the outage was not given, but during the launch of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the still-radioactive site, which lies some 100 kilometers from Kyiv, was taken over by Russian forces during a pitched battle in the area.
Since then, 210 Ukrainian personnel have been working at the nuclear plant without being rotated out for fresh workers.
IAEA said on Tuesday that Ukraine had informed it about the urgent need to rotate the nuclear plant’s personnel.
“[Ukraine] asked the IAEA to lead the international support needed to prepare a plan for replacing the current personnel and for providing the facility with an effective rotation system,” the IAEA said in a statement.