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Staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) are so tired they have stopped carrying out the repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Sunday.
In a statement, the IAEA said the Ukrainian regulator informed the agency that NPP staff were no longer carrying out repairs and maintenance, “in part due to their physical and psychological fatigue after working non-stop for nearly three weeks.” Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo said it completed repair work and resumed power supply to the Chernobyl NPP.
The IAEA said the staff of 211 technical personnel and guards have still not been able to rotate from the facility since the day before Russian forces entered the site on 24 February, citing the Ukrainian regulatory authority.
“The regulator has no direct communication with the staff but receives information from off-site NPP management,” the IAEA said.
“The increasingly dire situation facing personnel at the facility – coupled with persistent issues related to communication from the site as well as the now resolved power supply problem – added further urgency to an IAEA initiative aimed at ensuring safety and security at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The Director General has proposed a framework that would enable the IAEA to deliver technical and other assistance for the safe and secure operation of all of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, the statement said. Grossi discussed this last week with the Ukrainian and Russian Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergei Lavrov, respectively, the statement said.
“We can’t afford to lose more time,” he said. “The IAEA stands ready to act immediately, based on our proposed framework that requires agreement from the parties of the conflict before it can be implemented. We can only provide assistance to Ukraine’s nuclear sites once it has been signed. I’m doing everything I can to make this happen very soon.”
The full IAEA statement can be read here.
