It has been confirmed that half of the duty staff at the Chornobyl (better known by the Russian version of its name, Chernobyl) nuclear site in Ukraine were successfully rotated off-duty on Sunday. The Chornobyl site is currently occupied by invading Russian forces. Chornobyl was seized by the Russians on February 24 and the shift then on duty were unable to be relieved and had remained at their stations ever since.

On Sunday, 50 staff, plus nine National Guards (Ukraine’s paramilitary police force) – one of them a cancer patient – and a member of the National Emergency Service were allowed to leave the site. They were replaced by 46 Chornobyl staff who volunteered to relieve them.

“It is a positive – albeit long overdue – development that some staff at the Chernobyl NPP [nuclear power plant] have now been rotated and returned to their families,” said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi. “They deserve our full respect and admiration for having worked in these extremely difficult circumstances. They were there for far too long. I sincerely hope that remaining staff from this shift can also rotate soon.”

He had previously pointed out that one of the IAEA’s seven “indispensable” pillars for nuclear safety was "operating staff must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure”. He had also warned about the risks to safety posed by having staff working while tired and under pressure.    

Meanwhile, the IAEA was continuing to work to get both sides in the war to agree to measures that would ensure the safety of the nuclear facilities in Ukraine. Discussions on this issue have been hosted by Turkey and one of the possible measures being considered was the deployment of IAEA personnel to Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. “With this framework in place, the agency would be able to provide effective technical assistance for the safe and secure operation of these facilities,” affirmed Grossi.

Apart from the wrecked and closed Chornobyl NPP (the site, in 1986, of the world’s worst nuclear accident), Ukraine has four operating NPPs, one of which, Zaporozhe, is also occupied by Russian forces. According to the Ukrainian State-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom, all four are operating safely, with radiation within normal limits.