Russian forces seized the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant two weeks ago, but Ukrainian workers are still doing their jobs.
Business is not operating as usual.
More than 100 Chernobyl staffers are living in temporary dormitories. Night shift workers, firefighters, and medical staff from a nearby hospital are some of the staffers.
Chernobyl workers now only eat one meal a day and sleep on the floor, tables, or cots, according to the BBC. They work and sleep at the same time.
The Chernobyl staff are being held prisoner. Russian troops were willing to let Chernobyl staff swap shifts with other power plant workers outside the site, according to a relative of one of the workers. The relative was kept anonymous for safety reasons. There is limited road or rail travel to take staffers home if they leave the exclusion zone.
The exclusion zone has not been visited by off-site contractors.
On Tuesday, the SNRIU said there had been no scheduled activities, maintenance, or repair at Chernobyl since February 24, the day Russian troops took over. The site's automated monitoring system for radiation hasn't been restored.
The Union of Concerned Scientists' director of nuclear power safety told Insider that without this data, staffers might not have the information they need to protect public health and the environment. The site's safety parameters were still within the standard limits as of Tuesday, according to reports from staffers.
Some experts are concerned that the power plant staffers are getting too tired.
It is a serious concern if critical tasks at a nuclear facility such as Chernobyl cannot be carried out effectively or if the right personnel, equipment, and materials cannot be delivered from off-site.
Nuclear experts are more worried about an attack on the plant, which could kill workers on-site and possibly release radiation into the atmosphere.
The worst nuclear power plant accident happened at Chernobyl. The reactor core opened in 1986 and sent radioactive material into the air. The site is still being cleaned up and its reactor is no longer operating.
Most of the area has been cleaned up, but there are still some hot spots that have high levels of a radioactive isotope.
Military equipment and foot traffic can cause radiation levels to go up. The activity probably wouldn't release enough radiation to threaten people outside the exclusion zone. Even local impacts could set back efforts to fully stabilize and clean up the site and eventually allow it to return to productive use.
A military weapon accidentally hitting Chernobyl is a bigger concern. In that event, the structures could catch fire, causing radioactive material to degrade and possibly spread through the air.
We need to help avert a nuclear accident in Ukraine that could have severe consequences for public health and the environment. The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement on Monday that they couldn't afford to wait.
He said that he would be willing to go to Chernobyl for safety talks on how to protect the nuclear power plants.
Most experts don't fear a repeat of the 1986 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.
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