The “emergency situation” related to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, after bombing of the Russians. Kiev announces that the new “sarcofag” was affected
Ukrainian military, after a drone attack on nuclear plants from Chernobyl, Ukraine, on February 14, 2025. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / AP / Profimedia
The Russian air bombardments interrupted the electric power supply of the decommissioned nuclear power plant, the Ministry of Energy in Ukraine, including the supply of the new isolation unit built to reduce the contamination caused by the largest nuclear accident in the world, writes Reuters.
Ukrainian energy officials have also said that bombings have caused massive current interruptions in the nearby Cernihiv region, affecting 307,000 consumers near the Nordic Border of Ukraine with Russia.
The governor of the Cernihiv region has announced that they have been installed generators for key locations, such as hospitals, and emergency teams intervene to restore the operation of the electrical grid.
The announcement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy has not mentioned any increased risk of radiation release as a result of the interruption of the electricity supply of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which no longer works. However, he said that the emergency teams make efforts to restore the power supply.
“Due to the Russian bombardments on the energy infrastructure in the Kiev region, in the city of Slavuti, an emergency situation appeared at the installations of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” a ministry statement said.
“As a result of the overvoltages, the new secure insulation facility, which isolates the destroyed energy unit of the Chernobyl power plant and prevents the release of radioactive materials in the environment, has remained without electricity,” added the Ministry of Kiev.
The statement said that several teams of experts were working to restore the electricity supply of the facility.
After the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power plant exploded in April 1986 and spread a radioactivity cloud throughout Europe, Soviet engineers hurriedly built a “sarcophagus” around the reactor.
It was replaced with a new isolation structure in 2016, while the other three reactors of the boiler were gradually removed.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been under the occupation of Russian forces in 2022, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. In February, a Russian drone pierced the roof of the isolation structure.
