For the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the shift staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began to change on Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced.
“Ukraine has informed the IAEA that about half of the staff have finally been able to return home, having worked in the Russian-controlled plant for almost four weeks,” Rafael Grossi, the agency’s director general, said Sunday night.
“The Ukrainian national regulatory authority has confirmed that those who have left have already been replaced by other Ukrainian workers,” he said, adding that he was “pleased” with the development.
Russian forces took control of Chernobyl on February 24, and about 100 Ukrainian technicians working at the time continued to operate the day-to-day operation of the plant, which has nuclear waste since the 1986 accident, the worst in history.
The team that changed was the same one that had been working at the nuclear power plant since the previous Russian invasion, which “endangered” one of the “pillars” of nuclear safety, according to the IAEA, ie the staff should not forced to make decisions under excessive pressure.
The IAEA does not always receive data from its monitoring systems at Chernobyl, but it is transmitted to it by other nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
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