ukraines nuclear power plants are safe and secure amid russias invasion experts say the nations 15 operating reactors have also been assessed as safe at least for the momentcreditgleb garanichreutersfeb 25 2022the failed chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern ukraine as well as the nations 15 operating reactors are safe and secure amid russias invasion according to nuclear experts and the international atomic energy agency an arm of the united nations that sets safety standards for the worlds nuclear reactors and inspects them for compliancethe only real issue is if a nearby target got hit and caused some collateral damage said edwin lyman a reactor expert at the union of concerned scientists a private group in cambridge mass i dont see this as an imminent radiological threat i dont think russia would deliberately target a plantin 1986 the chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a meltdown that sent radioactive clouds over parts of europe and locally left a wasteland of contaminated soil all four chernobyl reactors are still shut down and the plants work force closely monitors the safety of chernobyls unit 4 reactor which in 1986 exploded and caught fire an exclusion zone for hundreds of square miles surrounds the abandoned plant to limit public access and inhabitationthe sprawling plant some 10 miles from belarus a russian ally is on one of russias main invasion routes western experts said it was in moscows interest to keep ukraines reactors and electrical system running smoothly if its aim was regime change rather than national ruintheres some risk of a direct hit said r scott kemp a professor of nuclear science at the massachusetts institute of technology but i imagine theyll do everything possible to avoid that because they dont want to deal with the falloutthe bigger threat dr kemp said is the degradation of ukraines power grid which could throw nuclear power plants offline and result in cascading blackoutsthe ukrainian government said on thursday on its official website that the russian invasion and its military takeover of chernobyl may cause another ecological disaster if the war continues the government added a disaster like chernobyl can happen again in 2022but nuclear experts rang no strident alarms rafael mariano grossi director general of the international atomic energy agency based in vienna said in a statement on thursday that its ukrainian counterpart reported that the nations 15 nuclear power plants were operating safely as for the chernobyl site he added the ukrainian body reported no casualties nor destructionon friday the agency noted reports of higher radiation measurements at the chernobyl site and quoted ukraines nuclear body as saying that the readings may have resulted from heavy military vehicles stirring up soil that the 1986 accident had poisonedthe stated readings the agency added are low and remain within the operational range measured in the exclusion zone since it was established and therefore do not pose any danger to the publicaccording to the international atomic agency ukraine receives a bit more than half of its electricity from