Ukraine’s nuclear regulators have restored direct communications with the defunct Chernobyl plant, more than a month after contact was lost during Russia’s occupation of the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday in a statement.

The country’s regulatory agency said on March 10 that it had lost all communication with the plant, raising concerns about safety at the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, where radioactive waste material requires constant management.

The IAEA said in early March that remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems at Chernobyl had also gone offline, after the site lost power. Electricity was restored after four days, but the agency’s director general has said its automated radiation sensors in Chernobyl have remained inoperable for more than a month.

The agency will send experts to the site later this month to repair monitoring systems, deliver equipment and assess the safety and security situation there, according to the statement.

Regulators had been receiving information indirectly through off-site management, but the restoration of direct phone contact is an important step towards restoring normal operation at the plant. “This was clearly not a sustainable situation, and it is very good news that the regulator can now contact the plant directly,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, the agency’s director general.

New York Times News Service