Russian Soldiers Disturbed Radioactive Dust, Stole Radioactive Materials in Chernobyl – As Russian soldiers begin to evacuate the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the site of the 1986 nuclear power plant meltdown, reports suggest that Russian troops are suffering from acute radiation sickness, that radioactive debris has been disturbed, and some radioactive material was stolen.
Tanks and Vehicles Disturbed Radioactive Soil
Two sources familiar with the Chernobyl plant told Reuters that Russian soldiers who took seized the site did not use any anti-radiation equipment, and one employee also said that troops were “suicidal” for inhaling radioactive dust, adding that those who walked entered the site were likely to have caused internal damage to their bodies.
After heavy artillery vehicles arrived on the site almost as soon as the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Ukrainian state nuclear inspectorate said on February 25 that radiation levels around Chernobyl had increased.
Both Chernobyl employees witnessed Russian armored vehicles and tanks move through the Red Forest, a radioactive forest roughly 65 miles north of Kyiv that is blocked off from the public.
“A big convoy of military vehicles drove along a road right behind our facility and this road goes past the Red Forest,” one source said. “The convoy kicked up a big column of dust. Many radiation safety sensors showed exceeded levels,”
Valery Seida, the Chernobyl plant’s acting general director, also told Reuters that Russian military vehicles were seen driving throughout the exclusion vote.
“Nobody goes there for God’s sake,” Seida said. “There is no one there.”
Stolen Radioactive Material
Anatolii Nosovskyi, the director of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants based in Kyiv, told Live Science that looters stole dangerous radioactive material from a monitoring laboratory near the Chernobyl plant following the Russian invasion and occupation of the site.
Nosovskyi said that there is a low chance that the materials could be used in dirty bombs but warned that the radioactive isotopes stolen from the lab are dangerous – and that the materials could still be used to develop weapons.
Bruno Merk, a researcher at the University of Liverpool in England, insisted that the stolen material could have been obtained elsewhere if there was an intention to use them for nefarious means.
“There are so many radioactive sources around the world. If someone wants to get their hands on this there’s an easier way,” Merk explained. “These radioactive sources you can steal in every hospital. It would always have been possible for someone to sneak in and steal something. I don’t see that the risk is any higher than before the Russians invaded.”
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
