The Ukrainian foreign ministry warned of another ecological disaster in the area as soon as Russian troops seized Chernobyl.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that the defenders are giving their lives so that the 1986 tragedy will not happen again.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine had a reactor open in 1986 that sent radioactive material into the air. Some people went on to develop cancer as a result of the toxic fumes that contaminated the local vegetation and water supply.
The 20-mile exclusion zone, which restricts access to visitors, had risen above normal levels, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. They couldn't determine the cause of the spike because of the occupation and military fight in this territory, but experts at Ukraine's state nuclear agency said that heavy military equipment in the area may have stirred up radioactive dust.
The site's radiation levels remain within the operational range measured in the exclusion zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to the public, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Nuclear experts told Insider that they are not concerned about a major release of radiation.
Most of the site has been decontaminated, so foot traffic probably wouldn't release enough radiation to threaten people outside the exclusion zone. Even if Chernobyl were to be attacked, experts said, a conventional weapon wouldn't be able to cause the kind of explosion that happened there in 1986.
Is it going to lead to a large-scale radiological release over a wide area? That is not likely, according to the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The professor of nuclear science at Oregon State University said that she would be more concerned about the conventional weapons dropping on someone's head than the extended footprint of radioactiveContamination.
Experts said they were more concerned about an accident in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone than a direct attack. Russia is in the zone to ensure the safe passage of troops toward the capital of Ukraine.
The structures or soil could catch fire if a military weapon accidentally struck Chernobyl. There are still hot spots in the area that have high levels of a radioactive isotope.
The less you disturb it, the better, he said.
The amount of radiation released at the time of the 1986 disaster would be the same as today. The most contaminated area of the site is the reactor No. 4 which is encased in a metal dome. The radioactive material is mostly inside the reactor core.
He said that nuclear material has to be dispersible if it is going to cause a serious radiation release. He said that a modern-day explosion would likely break the radioactive material into smaller pieces, meaning it wouldn't travel very far.
Even if a fire causes the radioactive material to degrade and possibly spread through the air, scientists don't expect a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster.
It is not likely that a single explosion will cause the kind of contamination that was seen when the reactor exploded, which traveled all over Europe and the Northern Hemisphere.
During the 1986 disaster, the reactor core exploded, causing the fuel rods inside to melt, as well as parts of the reactor such as steel and concrete, and sand that was dumped into the core to extinguish the flames. Around 100 tons of radioactivelava were created and hardened into rooms below the reactor.
The site has a metal dome that should mitigate some of the effects of the weapon.
When Chernobyl happened, there was a massive steam explosion brought about by the actions in the core and that dispersed material over a wide range.
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