Emergency situation at Chornobyl NPP resolved - Ukrainian Ministry
Photo: Consequences of attack on Chornobyl NPP (Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine)
The smoldering fire at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has been extinguished. A unit of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine will continue to be stationed at the site, the press service of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine reports.
Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk reminded that after an enemy drone strike on the New Safe Confinement (NSC) arch over the destroyed fourth reactor of the Chornobyl NPP, the filler material of the protective shell continued to smolder. Today, this process has been stopped.
"The radiation situation remains unchanged and is under constant control. A unit of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine will continue to be stationed at the site, and radiation and thermal imaging monitoring will continue," Grynchuk stated.
The next task is to assess the damage to the NSC arch and restore its functionality.
Drone attack on Cornobyl NPP
The attack occurred on February 14. A drone equipped with an explosive warhead struck the sarcophagus at ChNPP. According to the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, the consequences of the attack could have been catastrophic if an enemy drone had hit just 15 meters away from the impact site.
On February 17, firefighting operations at Chornobyl NPP were temporarily suspended, but new smoldering spots were later discovered and subsequently localized.
In addition, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers recently allocated over 1.5 billion hryvnias to maintain the damaged Chornobyl NPP shelter in a safe condition.
