Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a ceasefire so that the government could repair the power line for Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant shut down completely on Wednesday. This raises new concerns for the world as Ukraine said a power shortage could jeopardize systems for cooling nuclear materials. The reason for the power outage was not immediately clear.
The site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl was occupied by Russian forces before Ukrainian troops took control, and then again it has been taken over by the Russian forces.
Important updates on Chernobyl nuclear plant
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a ceasefire so that the government could repair the power line. As of now, emergency generators are supplying backup power to the plant.
He tweeted, "The reserve diesel generator has a capacity of 48 hours to power the Chernobyl NPP. After that, the cooling system of the storage facility for the spent nuclear fuel will be turned off, making radiation leakage imminent."
Read | Russia-Ukraine crisis: Gamma radiation levels detected at Chernobyl nuclear plant
Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said the diesel generator holds fuel for 48 hours and until power is restored within 48 hours, nuclear and radiation safety parameters cannot be controlled.
Ukraine's state-run nuclear company Energoatom said Chernobyl had about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies that cannot be kept cool amid a power outage.
Energoatom explains that due to warming, radioactive substances can be released into the environment. "Radioactive clouds can travel through the air to Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other regions of Europe," it said in a statement.
The UN nuclear watchdog warned on Tuesday that nuclear material monitoring systems at radioactive waste facilities in Chernobyl have stopped transmitting data.
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