UPDATE: The White House on Thursday expressed outrage over “credible” reports that Russian forces were holding the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear facilities hostage.
“This unlawful and dangerous hostage-taking, which could upend the routine civil service efforts required to maintain and protect the nuclear waste facilities, is obviously incredibly alarming,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a news briefing, requesting the workers’ release.
Russian forces have now seized control of the Chernobyl Power Plant in Northern Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, according to the Agency that manages the area.
According to reports, Russian troops overran the Plant on Thursday (24th February 2022), the first day of its multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine. The management of the Plant allegedly fled before the troops arrived, so no one was there to give instructions or defend the Plant. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine before dawn on Thursday with a series of missile attacks against locations near the capital Kyiv, as well as long-range artillery against the city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border. The assault quickly spread across Central and Eastern Ukraine as Russian forces attacked the country from three (3) sides. Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian forces were attempting to seize control of the Nuclear Plant. He said, “Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl [Nuclear Power Plant]. Our defenders are sacrificing their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated.” He added, “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry warned of another nuclear disaster in the city, echoing the statement from President Zelensky. The Ministry tweeted, “In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chernobyl. If Russia continues the war, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”
On 26th April 1986, a meltdown near Pripyat, Ukraine sent a radioactive cloud over parts of Europe and left a no man’s land of contaminated soil and other fallout, which remains dangerous. More than thirty (30) people died in the immediate aftermath of the explosion that tore through Chernobyl's No. 4 Reactor. In the years that followed, countless others died from radiation symptoms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Ukraine Government evacuated around 135,000 people from the area and the 19-mile exclusion zone around the Chernobyl Plant will remain uninhabitable for decades to come. In the months following the accident in 1986, a sarcophagus was built to cover Reactor 4 and contain the radioactive material. However, it has since deteriorated, resulting in radiation leaks.
This is a developing story - refresh this page for updates.
[Source: CNN]
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