Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February invasion of Ukraine led to the takeover of both active nuclear power plants and the shuttered Chernobyl plant, adding an unsettling radiological dimension to the war, the head of a Ukrainian research laboratory said Tuesday in a virtual presentation to a National Academies of Science panel.
While Russian troops have withdrawn from Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear accident, dozens of radioactive sources disappeared along with them, Vadim Chumak, told the National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. Chumak is Ukraine’s Head of Laboratory – National Research Center for Radiation Medicine, National Academy of Medicine.
During his 40-minute presentation, Chumak quoted Winston Churchill, expressed confidence in Ukraine’s ultimate victory, praised aid from allies in the United States and Europe, and encouraged more assistance.
“Help us to defeat Russia — that will solve all the problems,” Chumak said, responding to a question about what Ukraine is doing to locate missing radioactive material. Once the war is over, Chumak is confident a good inventory of missing sources will be compiled. Aside from Chernobyl, radioactive sources and medical isotopes may be at large following the destruction of the southeastern city of Mariupol.
Chumak also said Ukraine might benefit from donations of surplus radiation monitoring equipment “survey meters and individual dosimetric monitoring equipment, some whole whole body counters and this kind of stuff,” when it comes time for Ukraine to rebuild.
In response to a question from the audience, Chumak said he doubted that Russian troops were exposed to enough radiation near Chernobyl to contract acute radiation syndrome during the weeks they held the plant early in the invasion.
Some media had reported the possibility of severe contaminant uptake among Russian forces that dug trenches in the heavily contaminated Red Forest near the site, but Chumak’s “educated guess” was that their doses might amount to one-tenth of a sievert — far below the lower bounds for acute radiation syndrome.
Ukraine’s government seeks to be “very open” about radiological risks stemming from the Russian invasion, but at the same time try “not to make panic,” Chumak said.
There are four nuclear power stations, with a total of 15 reactors producing more than half of Ukraine’s electricity, Chumak said. While Russians left Chernobyl, the invading forces still control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Russia has also bombarded a nuclear research reactor in the city of Kharkiv. While Chumak said Ukraine would not seek to make a “dirty bomb” from nuclear plant materials, he is not so sure about Putin’s forces.
Chumak and Art Atkins of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) addressed the panel during an open session.
Atkins, assistant deputy administrator for NNSA’s Global Material Security office, said the agency had “been successful in providing some assistance at this time” to Ukraine, but that he “can’t go into specifics about things we have done to help.”
NNSA “received a number of requests for assistance and we have been working with our counterparts as they address this really severe crisis and have tried to do what we can to provide them with the resources that would be useful within the scope of our authority,” Atkins said.
