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Unlike an operating nuclear power plant, which can use some of the electricity it generates to power its operation, the long-defunct Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine is completely dependent on external electricity sources.

So, as the Ukrainian authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency say, when this power is cut, problems may arise because it was done by Russian troops.

Chernobyl, which saw the worst nuclear disaster in history on Wednesday, when one of its four reactors exploded and burned down 36 years ago, runs primarily on power from diesel generators. A long-time employee of the facility with knowledge of conditions there said that some equipment is also running on battery power, and radiation monitoring as well as fire suppression systems are affected.

The IEAE said on Wednesday it did not see a “critical impact on security” at the complex. But what if all those backups fail and Chernobyl has no power left?

The Chernobyl power plant came into operation in the late 1970s with the completion of its first two reactors. By 1983, the third and fourth units were operational, including those destroyed three years later.

The result of a misrecommended and misconducted test, the accident killed more than two dozen people in its immediate aftermath, most from exposure to high levels of radiation. The burning reactor core produced a cloud of radioactive particles that spread over parts of Europe and many more people suffered long-term effects, including cancer.

Pollution was worst around the plant, which was declared an “exclusion zone” and remained largely off-limits, in Ukraine and much of Belarus. Villages and a city were permanently abandoned.

The three remaining reactors of the plant were eventually shut down, the last of which was in 2000. Nuclear fuel was removed from all of them, and power generating turbines and other equipment were mostly removed.

When there is no reactor operating at the plant, there is no risk of core meltdown, as there would be if a working plant loses power and cannot circulate residual water through the reactor. This happened in the case Fukushima reactors in Japan in 2011when an earthquake and tsunami destroys backup power systems.

But Chernobyl also carries other risks associated with the large amount of nuclear waste at the site.

Fuel inside a reactor eventually runs out and is replaced. As is common practice in the nuclear power industry, fuel extracted from all four Chernobyl reactors over the years is stored in pools of water, which in total more than 20,000 assemblies dissipate the heat produced during the radioactive decay of the fuel. When fuel is just removed from a reactor and is still highly radioactive, there is a lot of decay and thus a lot of heat, so power plants need power to run pumps that circulate storage water, removing excess heat from the process.

If the water in the storage tanks gets hot enough to boil, the fuel is exposed to air and can ignite. This was among the risks in the Fukushima disaster.

The IAEA said the spent fuel batches at Chernobyl were old enough and rotten enough that circulation pumps were no longer needed to keep them safe.

“The heat load of the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water in the pool are sufficient to provide effective heat removal without the need for an electrical source,” the agency said.

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, workers had begun to transfer some of these fuel batches to a long-term dry storage facility that became operational in 2020. .

The other main source of nuclear waste unique to Chernobyl is the remains of the destroyed reactor. An estimated 200 tons of fuel remain in a lava-like mixture with the molten concrete, sand and chemicals that poured into the reactor during the disaster.

This highly radioactive mixture is found along the remnants of the reactor, which flows down the doors and drain pipes, stairs and other parts of the structure before it hardens. Some of these fuel-containing materials, under their own name, are in completely inaccessible places and have only been drilled into.

In the chaotic, chaotic remains of the destroyed Chernobyl reactor, there is no cooling system for power loss to affect.

In recent years, however, there have been episodes in the pockets of these fuel-containing materials where nuclear reactions begin spontaneously and cause spikes in radiation levels. They have been watched and will one day need to be addressed.

Without both humidity and radiation monitoring, workers would not know if any new events were occurring. The former employee, who knew about the conditions at the facility, said that the ventilation systems that helped control humidity levels had stopped working.

Since 2017, the destroyed reactor has been covered with a large arched structure to limit waste and protect against any radiation release. The structure also aims to allow the work of removing waste to long-term storage, a process that is expected to take decades.

The plant was granted an operating license by the Ukrainian authorities only last year, so work has only just begun. Several large cranes and other specialized equipment are available to allow crews to operate safely. Without the power supply, most, if not all, of these studies could not continue.