Chernobyl workers at risk due to Russian shelling, says IAEA

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Ukrainian authorities have informed that workers of the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant were at risk due to continued Russian shelling of checkpoints in the city of Slavutych.

According to the UN watchdog, many people working at the plant live in the city which is located outside the Exclusion Zone that was established around the site after the 1986 nuclear catastrophe.

In a statement on Thursday, the IAEA citing Ukraine’s regulatory authority said the shelling was endangering “the homes and families of those operational personnel that ensure the nuclear and radiation safety” of the plant, which fell to the Russian forces on February 24, the day Moscow launched its invasion of Kiev.