Russian forces have looted and destroyed a laboratory near the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was used to monitor radioactive waste, the Ukrainian government said Wednesday.
The site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster fell into Russian hands in the first week of Russia’s invasion, triggering fears that safety standards inside the exclusion zone could be compromised.
According to a Ukrainian government agency, the laboratory was part of a European Union-funded attempt to improve radioactive waste management — through on-site analysis of waste samples, as well as the packaging used to dispose of waste.
The government agency also reported that samples of radionuclides — unstable atoms that can emit high levels of radiation — had been removed from the lab. It said it hoped Russia would use the samples to “harm itself, and not the civilized world.”
It is the latest scare at the infamous site in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s government warned of several fires close to the plant, which it said had probably been triggered by Russian artillery or arson.
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