A giant structure designed to prevent radioactive leakage at the Chernobyl nuclear plant is no longer fully operational after a reckless Russian drone strike. The New Safe Confinement (NSC) was built as part of a £1.3billion (€1.5bn) effort led by the European Union in 2019.
The goal was to provide a new protective cover over the infamous Reactor 4 destroyed in the horror disaster which, in 1986, killed more than 30 people in the immediate aftermath and impacted the lives of millions more. However, the steel structure has “lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability” when drones caused a “major fire” in the outer cladding during an attack launched earlier this year, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The UN’s nuclear watchdog said one of its teams had carried out a comprehensive safety assessment of the NSC last week.
In a statement, the IAEA added the team had also found that there was “no permanent damage to its load-bearing structures or monitoring systems”.
It added: “Based on the mission findings, the IAEA recommends further restoration and protective work of the NSC structure, including humidity control measures and an updated corrosion monitoring programme, as well as an upgrade of an integrated automatic monitoring system for the shelter object structure built on top of the reactor immediately after the accident.”
To ensure “long-term nuclear safety”, nuclear watchdog’s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said, “timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential”. Limited and temporary repairs, he also said, have already been carried out on the roof of the NSC.
The Chernobyl site is set to undergo additional temporary repairs next year, with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The drone attack believed to have damaged the key structure reportedly happened on February 14. While the IAEA didn’t mention whether it believed the drone attack had been launched by the Kremlin, Ukrainian authorities claimed that, on that day, a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead had struck and damaged the NSC.
Moscow denied it had attacked the plant.
The now-defunct nuclear plant is protected by a multi-layered system, which at its core includes a concrete sarcophagus built not longer after the disaster in 1986 to contain radioactive material.
Since the beginning of the unlawful Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IAEA has pleaded the Ukrainian and Russian military to keep the fighting away from nuclear plants.
Russian troops have been occupying the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest in the world, since early March 2022, and several skirmishes have happened in the area since.
In September 2022, the UN called for a demilitarised zone around the nuclear plant, after Mr Grossi warned “something very, very catastrophic could take place” by maintaining troops in the area.
Earlier today, it emerged the plant had temporarily lost all off-site power overnight following one of Russia‘s aerial strikes since the beginning of the war.