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 radioactive dust thrown up.
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.
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.
Two huge explosions inside the reactor flipped its lid like a coin, blanketing the surrounding area with radioactive dust and reactor chunks.
The reactor was sealed off and the area deemed uninhabitable by humans for the next 24,000 years after the nuclear fire.
There were concerns that stray projectiles could pierce the exploded reactor's two layers of protection, consisting of a new outer safe-Confinement structure and an inner concrete sarcophagus.
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 to ensure the safety of the area.
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 was 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 UK wrote that the radiation around the plant looks to have increased by 20 times compared with a few days ago.
She said that caution should be taken at this stage.
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, inform the Ukrainian military about the movements of Russian military equipment, and to make Molotov cocktails in preparation for urban warfare.
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The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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