The Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its surrounding area are showing increased radiation levels after fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops.
The Ukrainian nuclear agency attributed the increase in radiation to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been occupied by Russian soldiers since the early hours of the morning on Thursday. Anna Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military expert, said that workers at the facility were taken hostage by Russian troops.
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The station staff is being held captive. Kovalenko wrote on Facebook that this threatens the security of not only Ukraine but also a significant part of Europe.
The Biden administration was "outraged" by reports of Russian troops holding Chernobyl plant staff against their will and demanded their release, according to the White House press secretary. She warned that the action could upend the civil service efforts required to maintain and protect the nuclear waste facilities.
Large parts of the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been closed off since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. In that year, the reactor's lid was flipped like a coin and the surrounding area was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 The reactor was sealed off after the nuclear fire and the area was deemed uninhabitable for the next 24,000 years.
A new outer safe-Confinement structure and an inner concrete sarcophagus were put in place to protect the exploded reactor.
In a statement, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said that the radiation around the plant was within normal levels and that Russian forces were working with the facilities to ensure the area's safety.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, believes that the Chernobyl site was seized as part of a blackmail tactic against the West.
Chernobyl has been seized and I think they will blackmail the West. Arestovych said in a statement that the President's Office is preparing a response to possible blackmail through Chernobyl.
The site is just north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and lies on a direct invasion route between the two countries.
The professor of nuclear material degradation at the University ofSheffield in the U.K., wrote on the social networking site that the radiation around the plant looks to have increased by 20 times compared with a few days ago.
The level of radiation has increased mostly around the main routes in and out of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, as well as the reactor. Increased movement of people or vehicles may have disturbed radioactive dust.
Unless the reactor is directly targeted, the highly radioactive fuel inside is unlikely to be released.
The fighting around the plant was just a small part of the larger Russian invasion of the country. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense urged citizens to stay at home, to inform the Ukrainian military about the movements of Russian military equipment, and to make Molotov cocktails in case of urban warfare.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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