(NewsReady.com) – Ukrainian officials say there’s a deadly new hazard in their ongoing war with Russia after enemy missiles hit a nuclear waste storage facility. Russian President Vladimir Putin might not have carried out his threat to use nuclear weapons, but radiation is now a factor anyway.
#RussiaUkrainecrisis | The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of #Kyiv, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material.https://t.co/LCZH2SVRLK
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) February 28, 2022
Early on Sunday, Ukraine’s State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation warned that a nuclear waste site near the capital Kyiv had been hit by a Russian attack. According to the agency’s statement, the RWD Radon storage site was struck by multiple missiles. The attack was reported over the telephone by staff in a shelter at the site; surveillance cameras also recorded missile impacts.
The site’s automatic radiation monitoring systems failed during the attack, and Russian strikes are ongoing in the area, so it isn’t known how badly the site has been damaged. However, the agency says there’s no radiation threat outside the site’s normal exclusion zone.
This is the second possible radiation hazard caused by the Russian invasion. Last Friday, February 25, Russian troops moved through the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station, which exploded in 1986. Sensors have reported a spike in radiation levels in and around the exclusion zone, probably caused by radioactive dust thrown up by heavy vehicles. President Putin’s aggression could leave large parts of Ukraine contaminated with radioactive particles for years to come.
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