The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that the remote safeguards monitoring systems at the ruined Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) have ceased transmitting data. Chornobyl, better known by its Russian name Chernobyl, was the location of the world’s worst nuclear accident, in 1986.

The Chornobyl site sits in an exclusion zone and contains both decommissioned reactors and radioactive waste facilities. Since February 24, it has been occupied by invading Russian forces. The working shift of some 210 personnel who were on duty at that time have not since been relieved or rotated and have effectively been sleeping at the NPP. Ukraine’s nuclear regulator has told the IAEA that the Chornobyl staff have access to food and water and to limited medication, but that communication was solely by email. All other communications with the NPP were down.    

“I’m deeply concerned about the difficult and stressful situation facing staff at the Chornobyl [NPP] and the potential risks this entails for nuclear safety,” stressed IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi. “I call on the forces in effective control of the site to urgently facilitate the safe rotation of personnel there.”

He had repeatedly emphasised that staff at nuclear facilities had to be rotated regularly, so that they could rest, and that this was essential for nuclear safety. Such personnel also had to be able to make decisions without being put under “undue” pressure. This was one of the IAEA’s seven “indispensable” principles for nuclear safety and security.

Currently, nuclear material handling at Chornobyl had been halted.

The Ukrainian nuclear regulator has asked the IAEA to lead an international effort to develop an effective staff rotation plan for the NPP. Grossi has affirmed that he was ready to travel to Chornobyl, or anywhere else, to win guarantees from the combatants for the safety and security of Chornobyl and all other nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

Russian forces currently also occupy Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya NPP. The Ukrainian nuclear regulator has told the IAEA that two of the NPP’s six reactors were operating, and that the staff were being allowed to rotate. Of the country’s total of 15 reactors, eight were currently operating, including the two at Zaporizhzhya. At all the NPP sites, radiation levels were normal.