Russia's Chernobyl seizure risked accident: nuclear chief

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Russian troops risked causing an accident with their “very, very dangerous” seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine

Thirty-six years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Russian troops risked causing an accident with their “very, very dangerous” seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Standing under an umbrella during a rain shower outside the damaged plant, agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that while radiation levels are normal, the situation is still “not stable.” Nuclear authorities have to “keep on alert."

Russian troops moved into the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone in February on their way toward the Ukrainian capital. They withdrew late last month as Russia pulled its forces from areas near Kyiv and switched its focus to fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The site has been back in Ukrainian hands since then, and disrupted communications have been restored.

Ukrainian officials have said the Russian occupiers held plant workers at gunpoint during a marathon shift of more than a month, with employees sleeping on tabletops and eating just twice a day.

Mr Grossi congratulated the workers on mitigating potential risks during the occupation, including power disruptions.

“I don’t know if we were very close to disaster, but the situation was absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous,” he said.