Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant lost its power again after Russian forces damaged its high-voltage power line, grid operator Ukrenergo reported.
The loss of power raised fears that the cooling system may allow radioactive material to leak.
According to reports, the attack on the power line came a day after electricity was restored to the plant.
“Ukrainian energy engineers, by risking their own health and lives, were able to avert the risk of a possible nuclear catastrophe that threatened the whole of Europe,” said Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Gulashenko.
However, the powerplant lost its power again as utterly exhausted staff at the plant have stopped doing repairs.
Ukrenergo reportedly said that it will try to do another repair but did not mention the exact timeframe for the operation.
Ukrainian authorities told the nuclear watchdog of the UN yesterday that staff at the power plant are exhausted.
In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Agency said: “The Ukrainian regulator informed the IAEA that staff at (Chernobyl) were no longer carrying out repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, in part due to their physical and psychological fatigue after working non-stop for nearly three weeks.”
Over 2,000 people are still working at the plant as it requires constant management to keep another nuclear disaster at bay.
The IAEA has urged Russia to allow captive staff members at the plant to leave, explaining that it is necessary to ensure a “safe rotation” of staff.
Last week, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called on “the forces in effective control of the site to urgently facilitate the safe rotation of personnel there.”
He also offered to go to Chernobyl or other area to secure “the commitment to the safety and security” of the power plants after the IAEA reported that it was no longer receiving signals from its systems monitoring the levels of radiation at the plant.
Russian forces reportedly cut the power to the power plant last week and it was forced to run on diesel-powered generators but the UN’s atomic watchdog said there was “no critical impact safety” at the time.
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