The National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine (NCRPU), an expert advisory and consultative body to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), expresses deep concern over the dissemination by the IAEA of obviously unreliable data on the situation at the nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the nuclear threats in the context of the annexation of nuclear facilities by Russian military troops.
There are five nuclear power plants in Ukraine. One of them – the Chornobyl NPP – is being decommissioned. At present, 15 units are in operation at four NPPs. In addition to the nuclear power plants, there are two research reactors: WWR-M (Institute of Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine); DR-100, one critical assembly (Sevastopol Institute of Nuclear Energy and Industry); subcritical assembly "Neutron Source" in Kharkiv; the “Shelter” Object; wet (SNF-1) and dry (SNF-2) spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the ChNPP site, radioative waste facilities in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone; a dry spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the Zaporizhzhia NPP site; six interregional special facilities (ISFs) for radioactive waste disposal, five mining complexes and two hydrometallurgical plants for uranium processing; about seven thousand enterprises using radioactive substances, radioisotope devices and sources of ionizing radiation which total to about 100 thousand units. More than 20 uranium deposits have been explored in Ukraine. At two of them – Ingulsky and Smolinsky – the ore is mined now. Novokostiantynivske deposit is ready for industrial mining.
At present, Russian military forces have control over:
- Chornobyl NPP;
- spent nuclear fuel wet and dry storage facilities located at the Chernobyl NPP site;
- “Shelter” Object;
- Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ);
- radioactive waste disposal and interim storage facilities located in ChEZ;
- Zaporizhzhia NPP (city of Energodar);
- spent nuclear fuel dry storage facility at the Zaporizhzhia NPP site.
There are about 1,200 sources of ionizing radiation on the Ukrainian territories that were occupied in 2014, including:
- nuclear reactor in Sevastopol (Crimea);
- Donetsk radioactive waste storage facility, where the protection barriers were damaged;
- flooded “Young Communard” mine (“Klivazh” facility), where underground nuclear tests were carried out by the USSR in 1979 for peaceful purposes.
According to the Law of Ukraine "About use of nuclear energy and radiation safety", a radiation accident is an event that results in loss of control over a nuclear facility or a source of ionizing radiation, which causes or may cause the exposure of humans and the environment to radiation that exceeds the permissible limits established by the safety standards and regulations.
As a result of the Russian aggression and occupation of a part of the territory of Sovereign Ukraine, loss of the regulatory control over two nuclear power plants and spent nuclear fuel storage facilities, bombing of nuclear facilities and invasion to the territory of near-surface radioactive waste storage facilities, a large-scale radiation accident occurred in Ukraine that could lead to unprecedented release of radioactivity into the environment and a global nuclear catastrophe. The amount of radioactivity which is currently under the control of the Russian aggressor is several thousand times higher than that released from the 4th ChNPP Unit from April 26 to May 6, 1986, while the content of 137Cs and 90Sr radionuclides corresponds to 600,000 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
At the same time, in breach of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, which was ratified by Russian Federation and its ally Republic of Belarus as well, the IAEA reports the lack of danger and the functioning of the nuclear facilities on a regular basis with no regard for bombing and occupation by Russian Federation. Thereby the IAEA acts in disregard with the international law, the Convention on Nuclear Safety, the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, the Agreement Between Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in Connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The country that commits nuclear terrorism on the territory of another state is still a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and its citizen remains one of the IAEA leaders - that contradicts the IAEA statutory documents, goals and objectives.
In order to prevent a large-scale radioactive contamination of the Earth's biosphere, which could lead to the annihilation of life on the planet, due to unskilled actions or terrorist acts of the Russian military troops, the National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine.
APPEALS TO IAEA:
- to suspend membership of the Russian Federation in the IAEA as an aggressor country that commits nuclear terrorism;
- to suspend the work of the Russian citizens (over 100) in the IAEA, including Deputy Director General of the IAEA Mr. Mikhail Chudakov, the Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy, until the Russian military forces are completely withdrawn from the territory of sovereign Ukraine;
- to initiate the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces on the territory of the nuclear facilities in Ukraine and to ensure their protection from terrorist acts, bombing and airstrikes.