Chernobyl protective shield can no longer confine radiation after drone strike, UN nuclear watchdog says

Fragments of a drone that struck the New Safe Confinement in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone following the Feb. 14, attack. (Artem Derkachov/Frontliner/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The protective shield built around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in Ukraine can no longer do its job to confine radioactive waste as a result of a drone strike earlier this year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The New Safe Confinement (NSC) at Chernobyl, which was “severely damaged” by the drone strike in February, has “lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability,” the IAEA said in a Friday statement.

Ukraine accused Russia of carrying out the Feb. 14 strike at Chernobyl, which the Kremlin denied.

The strike hit the NSC, sparking a fire and damaging the protective cladding around it, the IAEA said.

The nuclear watchdog has recommended a major renovation of the huge steel structure, which was put into place several years ago to enable clean-up operations and ensure the site’s safety nearly four decades on from the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

“Limited temporary repairs have been carried out on the roof, but timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

Grossi added that there had been no permanent damage to the NSC’s load-bearing structures or monitoring systems.

The IAEA, which has a permanent presence at the site, will “continue to do everything it can to support efforts to fully restore nuclear safety and security,” Grossi said.

It’s not the first time that Chernobyl has been in the spotlight over the course of Russia’s near four-year war in Ukraine. Russian forces seized the nuclear plant and its surrounding area in the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, overrunning the plant in February 2022 and holding staff hostage. They left the plant and handed back control to Ukrainian personnel just over a month later.

The NSC is a massive, arch-shaped steel structure built at the Chernobyl site to cover the ruined No. 4 reactor and contain its radioactive material.

As the world’s largest movable land structure, the colossal hangar is a monumental feat of engineering. Built in 2010 and completed in 2019, it was designed to last 100 years and has played a crucial role in securing the site.

The project cost €2.1 billion (US$2.4 billion) and was funded by contributions from more than 45 donor countries and organizations through the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which in 2019 hailed the venture as “the largest international collaboration ever in the field of nuclear safety.”

In April 26, 1986 an explosion tore through the No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl, in what was then the Soviet Union, spreading radioactivity across swathes of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and beyond.

More than 30 people were killed in the nearby city of Pripyat, Ukraine, with many others suffering symptoms resulting from radiation exposure since, according to the IAEA and the World Health Organization. Birth defects and cancer rates among residents in the area exposed to radiation are still high.

By Kara Fox, CNN