It has been five weeks since Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in human history, was taken over by Russian troops invading Ukraine. The subsequent development of Chernobyl began to worry the public.
Hearing the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) fall into Russian hands alone is worrying. People are busy guessing what Russia will do with the site.
Within weeks, power at the facility was cut off, putting hundreds of Ukrainian workers held inside the building at risk of exposure to radioactive dust, and the surrounding radioactive plantations and fungus burning.
Then last week, even worse news emerged. According to a report published by Science and confirmed by New Scientist sources, Russian troops in the area have looted the radiation monitoring laboratory in the village of Chernobyl.
It appears they also brought with them artifacts that could potentially be used to make dirty bombs, a type of weapon made by mixing conventional explosives with radioactive materials.
"There are more dangerous materials stored at the Chernobyl facility and their fate is unknown to us," said Anatoli Nosovskyi, director of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv.
Among these materials are samples from the destruction of the Unit Four facility 35 years ago that still contain radioactive substances, as well as what Nosovskyi calls the strong source of gamma radiation and neutrons used in testing the device.
As scary as it sounds, experts say there's not much reason to worry, at least not more than we've been worried about before.
"A radioactive source that is easily available in laboratories and offices will become a calibration source, the material you use to calibrate detection equipment," said Professor Bruno Merk, Chair of Research in Computational Modeling for Nuclear Engineering at the University of Liverpool.
"You can steal this radioactive source in any hospital. There will always be a possibility for someone to sneak in and steal something. I don't see that the risk is any higher than it was before the Russians invaded," he explained.
"If they have plutonium strewn about in the office, then they have massively violated (global) contamination laws. There are clear rules from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for this and that seems unlikely," Merk continued.
Russia has previously denied that its forces have put nuclear facilities in Ukraine in jeopardy. This objection is in response to the response of Ukrainian officials who condemned the activities of troops around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant which were considered irresponsible.
"In the context of nuclear safety, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of Russian servicemen pose a very serious threat not only to Ukraine but also to hundreds of millions of Europeans," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Transporting old and dilapidated Russian weapons in the vicinity of the Chernobyl facility risks damaging the containment vessels protecting the destroyed Unit Four reactor, which could result in the release of large amounts of radioactive dust and contamination in the atmosphere not only in Ukraine, but in other European countries as well.
Meanwhile, reports from inside the beleaguered nuclear power plant reveal that a humanitarian crisis is brewing there. Workers are forced to take 24-hour shifts with limited access to basic necessities such as food and medicine.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway to secure thousands of other Ukrainian nuclear sites, although there are many radioactive sources that are not on anyone's radar, not even Ukraine's own.
However, Merk said the threat from dirty bombs made from artifact materials at Chernobyl remained low. "There are so many radioactive sources around the world. If someone wants to get to this, there's an easier way," he believes.