IAEA reported on an attack on a nuclear research facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Monday that a nuclear research facility was damaged in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, although the nuclear material remained intact.

According to its director, Rafael Grossi, the facility had already been hit by bombing during the conflict, although there is no risk to the population because the building has been used for research, development and production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications.

“Its nuclear material is subcritical, there can be no nuclear chain reaction, and the radioactive inventory is low,” said Grossi in his latest report, adding that the facility was attacked on Saturday.

“In today’s update, Ukraine said that the building, its thermal insulation and the experimental room were damaged, but not the neutron source, which contains nuclear material used to generate neutrons for research and production of isotopes,” he has detailed.

Of the country’s 15 operational reactors, the regulator has noted that eight continue to operate normally, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, three in Rivne, one in Khmelnytskii and two in southern Ukraine. The other reactors are closed for regular maintenance.

Last week at least six civilians were killed and 15 injured on Thursday in a Russian bombing of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv (northeastern), the regional governor said on the Telegram app.

“According to preliminary reports, six civilians were killed and 15 were injured and hospitalized,” said Oleg Siniegubov.

The bombing, carried out with “long-range weapons”, hit a post office in the vicinity of which local residents were receiving humanitarian aid, said Siniegubov, who denounced a new “crime of the Russian occupiers.”

Kharkiv, the second city in the country with almost 1.5 million inhabitants before the war, is located about 40 kilometers from the Russian border.

Since the start of the invasion on February 24, the city has been the target of Russian bombardments that have destroyed nearly a thousand buildings, most of them residential properties, said its mayor, Igor Terekhov, quoted by the media on Monday.

(With information from Europa Press)

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