Researchers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine had been looking for bacteria to eat radioactive waste – but they now fear that their work was irreparably lost during the Russian invasion of the facility.
, director of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) – which carries out research in several labs at Chernobyl – said in a letter to the global scientific community, seen by 91av, that his staff are still unable to return to work despite Russian troops withdrawing from the plant earlier this month.
A limited party was able to access laboratories on 12 April and found doors and windows broken and most scientific equipment looted, damaged or destroyed. Nosovskyi suggested that soldiers were tasked with collecting their data. “Almost all the computer equipment was taken to a separate premise where the looters removed the memory cards,” he wrote.
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ISPNPP researcher has been in the city of Zhytomyr, around 130 kilometres west of Kyiv, for the past week after being first evacuated to Chernivtsi at the start of the invasion. Before the attack, she was attempting to identify bacteria that could consume radioactive waste within Chernobyl’s destroyed reactor, and she fears that her research will be impossible to resume.
“The truth is that there are still scattered Russian troops in Chernobyl, so scientists and other people who are not military are not allowed there,” she says. “Also, the forests are mined, so it will take a while for us to come back to labs as usual. As for now, all our entrance permissions are stopped until further notice.”
Pareniuk had been studying the microbial diversity of pools of water within the containment building around the destroyed reactor, but these pools have long since disappeared.
“I still have a hope that my samples are in their fridge. It will be impossible to get those biodiversity samples for the second time,” she says. “We were trying to cultivate the specific microorganism that might ‘eat’ lava, concrete and steel constructions inside the arch and spent fuel storage. That might be restored, but it will take a lot of money, time and work.”
Another ISPNPP researcher, , is less optimistic. “We need to start near from zero mostly in all subjects, having people but no data, as all our hard discs have been stolen,” he says.
Work at the laboratories is still on hold. In his letter, Nosovskyi said that budgets to rebuild and replace equipment won’t come while the country is at war, and will be difficult to secure even in the aftermath. He also said that the ISPNPP plans to launch a charitable fund asking scientific organisations around the world to help.
Life is also difficult for other workers at the power plant. Pareniuk says that their shifts typically last around 12 hours, but that the rail route between the site and the town of Slavytych – where most workers live – passes through Belarus and is considered too risky because of the country’s alliance with Russia. “No one really wants to risk people’s life and send them to Belarus even for a couple of hours,” she says.
The alternative route through Chernihiv, Kyiv, Bucha and Irpin is challenging because of downed bridges and shelled roads, meaning that a one-way journey itself may take longer than the shift, says Pareniuk.
