IAEA rules out radioactive threat from wildfires around Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated on Thursday that wildfires around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant do not constitute a radioactive threat. According to a statement, the Vienna-based United Nations nuclear watchdog clarified that it has been informed by Ukrainian officials that gamma levels in the Chernobyl area do not surpass reference levels. 

Further, the Director-General of IAEA, Rafael Grossi noted that from past experience it has been suggested that such wildfires are only likely to cause a minor rise in "radioactive concentration in the air", ANI reported. Additionally, IAEA has concurred with Ukraine's evaluation that the wildfires do not constitute a threat to human health. 

The Chernobyl nuclear power facility, which is located 110 kilometres north of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, was the site of one of the world's greatest nuclear catastrophes in April 1986. Since the region is still tainted by radioactive waste from the 1986 nuclear disaster, spontaneous fires are common in the area at this time of year, according to Grossi. 

Remote transmission of safeguards data from Chernobyl plant to IAEA completely re-established

Meanwhile, IAEA chief Grossi said on May 12, Thursday, said that remote transmission of safeguards data from war-torn Ukraine's Chernobyl plant to the IAEA had been completely re-established. 

The development, according to Director-General Grossi, is a "very important and significant" step in implementing safeguards in Ukraine. Amid the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, IAEA Chief Grossi conducted a journey to the Chernobyl plant last month to help in scaling up efforts to avert the hazards of a nuclear disaster. At the site, the IAEA mission provided critical equipment and conducted radiological and other analyses. 

Furthermore, Ukrainian officials had demanded the departure of Russian forces from the Chernobyl area late in March, citing the risk of munitions exploding. Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, has asked the UN Security Council to take prompt action to demilitarise the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Later, justifying the cause for its evacuation from the Chernobyl region, Moscow claimed that digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the shuttered plant exposed its troops to substantial dosages of radiation. 

Apart from this, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency had warned on April 29 that Russian missiles passing over Ukraine's nuclear power plants might result in a catastrophic disaster, jeopardising world security. 

(Image: AP)