‘A nuclear bomb’: Radiation rises at Chernobyl after Russia assault

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been warned plutonium-239 fuel rods at Chernobyl were no longer secure and could be turned into “a nuclear bomb”.

Russian forces have taken control of Chernobyl. Picture: Supplied

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been warned plutonium-239 fuel rods could be turned into “a nuclear bomb”, as gamma radiation rises at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Ukrainian authorities said the levels of radioactivity were increasing at the Chernobyl exclusion zone after losing control of the site to Russian troops.

Russian forces captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst radioactive disaster in 1986, on the first day of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The battle for Chernobyl was the scene of the fiercest fighting as Ukraine fighters attempted to protect the giant concrete sarcophagus containing the reactor’s radioactive fallout.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister warned of an “ecological disaster” if Russian troops continued to hold Chernobyl.

Ukrainian authorities also said that they had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that they had lost control of highly radioactive fuel rods from the power plant.

“In the terrible hands of the aggressor, this significant amount of plutonium-239 can become a nuclear bomb that will turn thousands of hectares into a dead, lifeless desert,” said Ukraine’s environmental protection ministry.

Russian forces have taken control of Chernobyl. Picture: Supplied.

The ministry said the Russian troops’ takeover of the Chernobyl exclusion zone could have grave consequences.

“The humanitarian and environmental consequences of such a catastrophe have no borders,” the ministry added, stressing that “they will have terrible consequences for people.”

Separately, the Ukrainian parliament said that data from the automated radiation monitoring system in the Chernobyl exclusion zone indicated higher than usual levels of radiation.

Gamma radiation levels “have been exceeded at a significant number of observation points,” parliament said in a statement.

“Due to the occupation and hostilities, it is currently impossible to establish the reasons for the change in the radiation background in the exclusion zone,” the statement said.

Alexander Grigorash, an official at the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, told AFP increased radiation levels at the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone had been registered at 3:20am local time.

The giant protective dome built over the sarcophagus covering the destroyed fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Picture: AFP.

Grigorash, who is deputy head at the authority’s nuclear facilities safety department, said he could not provide further details because staff had been evacuated from the site after Russian troops had taken control of the plant, along with four hostages.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that levels of radioactivity at the plant were “normal.”

The explosion in the fourth reactor at the nuclear power plant in April 1986 left swathes of Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus badly contaminated and led to the creation of the exclusion zone roughly the size of Luxembourg.

Originally published as ‘A nuclear bomb’: Radiation rises at Chernobyl after Russia assault