Russian Soldiers Leave Chernobyl With Radiation Illness, Energy Company Says [View all]
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vw8x/russian-soldiers-leave-chernobyl-with-radiation-illness-energy-company-says
After more than a month of occupying the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a number of Russian troops have left the exclusion zone, Ukrainian officials are reporting.
Energoatom, Ukraines state-run nuclear energy operator, reported Thursday that two columns of Russian troops had left the site and were heading toward the Belarusian border.
This morning, the invaders announced their intentions to leave the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to Ukrainian station personnel, a statement posted to the Energoatom Telegram channel reads.
Their departure marks a milestone in Russias invasion of Ukraine. Troops first entered the 1,000-kilometer exclusion zone surrounding the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster on Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion, immediately igniting concerns about the risk of a second similar disaster and the broader environmental consequences of dredged-up nuclear waste. The Ukraine government reported throughout Russias invasion that staff at the plant were being held hostage, unable to rotate positions and follow typical safety protocol. At one point, the power plant was brought entirely offline; at another, officials reported that they had lost all contact with staff there.
Though the plant is no longer operating, it requires a team of staff to manage the maintenance of nuclear waste. Still, nuclear experts cautioned that the risk of a second Chernobyl disaster on the same scale as the first was essentially nil.
..............