(Updated with IAEA, details from Energoatom, reactions in Paris, Berlin)
LVIV, Ukraine, March 9 (Reuters) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday downplayed the risk of radioactive leaks at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear site, occupied by the Russian military, due to a power cut.
According to the Ukrainian public nuclear company Energoatom, radioactive substances could escape from the damaged plant in 1986 because the absence of electricity would prevent the cooling of spent nuclear fuel.
Work to repair the high-voltage line that supplies the site with electricity is impossible to carry out due to fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Energoatom added, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kouleba called on Russia to observe a ceasefire to allow for repairs.
In a statement, however, the IAEA said the loss of electricity at the site had no primary consequence for the plant. “The heat load of the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water are sufficient to remove heat efficiently without the need for a power supply,” she said.
The IAEA announced on Tuesday evening that it had lost contact with the control systems for radioactive material stored at the Chernobyl site since the 1986 accident.
According to Energoatom, around 20,000 used fuel rods cannot currently be cooled, which could lead to the “release of radioactive substances into the environment”. “The radioactive cloud could be carried by the wind to other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe,” added the Ukrainian group.
Without electricity, ventilation systems at the site are also down, exposing staff to dangerous doses of radiation, Energoatom added.
In Berlin, the German government said it had no knowledge of a radioactive leak at Chernobyl so far.
In Paris, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the information reinforced the executive’s “very great concern” about the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine, as the Russian military also seized the Zaporizhia power plant.
“We are in the process of clarifying this information in conjunction with the IAEA and with the Ukrainian authorities to measure the situation on site, how many power lines are affected, what are the possible alternatives in terms of diesel generators. (… ) We call on Russia to cooperate fully with the IAEA to ensure the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine,” added Gabriel Attal.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, whose reactor number 4 exploded in April 1986 during a safety test, is located about a hundred kilometers north of Kiev. The Russian army seized the site at the start of its military offensive against Ukraine on February 24. (Report Natalia Zinets, with John Irish in Vienna; written by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)