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No increase in radiation levels from Chernobyl in Poland: agency

25.02.2022 13:00
Poland's atomic energy agency said on Friday it had recorded no increase in radiation levels in the country after Russian troops seized the site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in neighbouring Ukraine.
The site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, some 100 km north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, some 100 km north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.Photo: EPA/OLEG PETRASYUK

The National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) said in a statement that "there is currently no risk" to the Polish population.

It added that it was "constantly monitoring the radiation situation in the country."

Its statement came after Ukraine's nuclear agency and interior ministry said on Friday they were recording increased radiation levels from the site of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

Experts at the Ukrainian nuclear agency said the change was due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area sending radioactive dust into the air, Reuters reported.

Poland's National Atomic Energy Agency said it "received information from the Ukrainian nuclear regulatory authority under the international Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies (USIE) that all the facilities" at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant "were seized by foreign troops" at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

"No casualties have been recorded and no damage has taken place," the Polish nuclear agency said in its statement.

It added that it was "in constant contact with the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine."

The Polish agency also said that it had "not recorded any changes in the results of ionizing radiation measurements under the national radiation monitoring system."

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. It lies some 100 kilometres north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

(gs)

Source: tvp.info, Reuters