Chernobyl loss of power has 'no critical impact' on safety, top nuclear experts say
The loss of power at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine does not have any critical impact on safety, the UN nuclear watchdog has said.
Ukraine said on Wednesday there was a danger of a radiation leak after electricity was cut off to the plant.
State-run nuclear company Energoatom said a high-voltage power line had been damaged during fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian forces who are occupying the defunct plant, and that it had been cut off from the national power grid.
UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said although the “development violates key safety pillar on ensuring uninterrupted power supply; in this case IAEA sees no critical impact on safety.”
It added: "Heat load of spent fuel storage pool and volume of cooling water at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sufficient for effective heat removal without need for electrical supply,"
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Energoatom said there were about 20,000 spent fuel assemblies at Chernobyl that could not be kept cool during a power outage and that their warming could lead to "the release of radioactive substances into the environment".
"The radioactive cloud could be carried by wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe," it said in a statement.
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Without power, ventilation systems at the plant would also not be working, exposing staff to dangerous doses of radiation, it added.
Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said reserve diesel generators could power the plant for 48 hours.
"After that, cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent," he wrote on Twitter.
"I call on the international community to urgently demand Russia to cease fire and allow repair units to restore power supply."
On Tuesday, the IAEA had warned that the systems monitoring nuclear material at the radioactive waste facilities at Chernobyl had stopped transmitting data.
The still-radioactive site of the world's worst nuclear disaster lies some 100 km (62 miles) from Kyiv.
Its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986 during a botched safety test, sending clouds of radiation billowing across much of Europe.
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The Russian invasion has now driven two million people out of Ukraine and into neighbouring countries, the UN said on Tuesday.
It is the largest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.
US intelligence authorities warned Russian president Vladimir Putin could decide to leave Ukraine if his efforts to take over are continually stalled, but said he could double down on the violence before this.
The nation's largest cities are still under Ukrainian control, but coming under constant Russian bombardment as Putin's force step-up their campaign.
