Chornobyl laboratory attacked?

A laboratory on the Chornobyl nuclear site that researches radioactive waste management has been “robbed and destroyed” by the occupying Russian military forces, according to the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management. (Державне агентство України з управління зоною відчуження)

The lab was created in 2015 in collaboration with the European Union and at a cost of more than 6 million euros. As such, it contains highly radioactive samples which have now fallen into Russian hands, says the agency. In an understandably uncharitable comment on its Facebook page, the Ukrainian agency expressed a hope that “the enemy today…will harm himself, not the civilized world.”

According to an April 26,2021 National Geographic feature story, “About 100 scientists work at Chornobyl’s scientific laboratories to monitor contamination and study the effects of radiation on the environment.” It is unclear who, if any among them, have continued any of this work since the invasion began.

Note: “Chornobyl” is the closest English spelling to the Ukrainian pronunciation and is preferred by Ukraine over the more familiar Russian “Chernobyl”.

(Photo: State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management)