Energy Community Secretariat concerned over Chernobyl power cut

The Energy Community Secretariat said it is very concerned regarding the news about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine being disconnected from the electricity network.

Ukraine’s electricity transmission system operator Ukrenergo said decommissioned nuclear power plant Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of the 1986 disaster, has been “fully disconnected” from the grid due to Russian bombing.

The country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called on the international community to urgently demand a ceasefire from the Kremlin to allow repair and said the reserve diesel generators have the capacity to work for only 48 hours. “After that, cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent,” he added. Other Ukrainian authorities issued similar warnings.

Energoatom, the state-owned operator of the country’s nuclear power plants, said radioactive substances could be released. “The radioactive cloud could be carried by wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe,” it stressed. Electricity is also necessary for air filters in the building that was constructed to cover the leftovers of the reactor after the meltdown.

The Energy Community Secretariat said it is very concerned about Ukrenergo’s report and added that it appreciates the efforts of the  European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) to connect the Ukrainian power system with the one of Continental Europe.

Surprisingly, the International Atomic Energy Agency, affiliated with the United Nations, said there is “no critical impact on safety” from the incident. Conversely, it pointed out that it violates a “key safety pillar”.