Why did radiation levels at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant soar immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

On February 24, 2022, immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the values of radiation sensors installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant rose sharply. Regarding this reason, there is a view that `` Russian military vehicles moved around, and radioactive substances in the ground were rolled up, '' but journalist

According to Zetter, several experts denied the Ukrainian authorities' view that the reason why the radiation dose increased in the sensors around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was ``due to the movement of the Russian military''.

On the other hand, it is possible that the radiation sensor was hacked. Security researcher Ruben Santamarta pointed out that in 2017, there was a vulnerability in radiation sensors different from those used at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the possibility of manipulating the recorded data.

Go Nuclear: Breaking Radiation Monitoring Devices
(PDF file)

Mr. Santa Marta conducted an investigation, thinking that the same vulnerability was also in the radiation sensor used at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and showed the view that 'the numbers are being manipulated.'

According to Mr. Santa Marta's investigation, from 20:40 on February 24th to 10:50 on 25th, a rapid increase in radiation dose occurred in multiple sensors. After 30 minutes to 2 hours, the values returned to normal values. However, there was a case where the sensor that saw a sharp rise in value at the same time was separated by several kilometers at the site, and there was a case where other sensors that were closer did not respond.

A map of the area around the nuclear power plant shown by Mr. Santa Marta. Red dots show sensors with spikes in radiation levels, green dots show normal.

Given that it does not apply to similar cases where radiation spikes are believed to have actually occurred on-site, Santamarta believes that the data has either been remotely rewritten by hackers or manipulated by someone with direct access to the servers that process the data. concluded that it was likely

Santa Marta is not the first to point out the possibility of hacking, and some experts have pointed out as of February 25, 2022 .