High Risk: Ukraine Unable To Monitor Radiation Levels At Occupied Chernobyl

Kyiv: In a worrying development amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, radiation levels around the occupied Chernobyl nuclear plant are likely to rise because its radiation monitoring system and forest fire-fighting service are not working.

Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement on Monday that firefighters are no longer available in the region to protect forests tainted by decades of radioactivity as the weather warms, Reuters reported.

Russian forces seized the plant, site of the world’s worst meltdown in 1986, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The combination of risks could mean a “significant deterioration” of the ability to control the spread of radiation not just in Ukraine but beyond the country’s borders in weeks and months to come, the statement pointed out.

The nuclear plant went off the grid on March 9 following which Ukrainian Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said the power outage could put at risk systems for cooling nuclear material.