The United Nations atomic agency said late Tuesday that it was no longer receiving data transmission from its systems at the Chernobyl nuclear facility for monitoring activities there.
Russian forces took over the site in late February and the agency had already reported that communication between the site and Ukraine’s nuclear regulators was only taking place by email.
The International Atomic Energy Agency signaled Tuesday that the information flow had deteriorated further and “is looking into the status of safeguards monitoring systems in other locations in Ukraine and will provide further information soon.”
Safeguards systems operate remotely in many countries transmitting data to the agency to indicate that a nuclear site is being operated normally and no equipment or material is being diverted for illicit purposes.
There are no operating nuclear reactors at Chernobyl, site of the biggest-ever nuclear accident in 1986.
“The handling of nuclear material at the Chornobyl NPP has been put on hold for the time being,” the IAEA said Ukraine’s regulator had reported. “The site, located in an Exclusion Zone, includes decommissioned reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities.”