Rescuers work at the site where a Russian attack drone with an explosive warhead hit the New Safe Confinement at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on January 14, 2025. Photo / Getty Images
Rescuers work at the site where a Russian attack drone with an explosive warhead hit the New Safe Confinement at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on January 14, 2025. Photo / Getty Images
Chernobyl’s protective shell can no longer block radiation from leaking out following a Russian drone strike earlier this year, the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog said.
The massive shield covering the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster has lost its “primary safety functions, including the confinement capability”, inspectors have discovered.
In February, Ukraine accused Russia of targeting the power plant, which is about 130km north of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
Footage showed a kamikaze Shahed-style drone crashing into the shelter’s roof, causing severe damage and sparking a fire.
The Kremlin denied the claim at the time. Ukraine, which is still in control of the site, reported that radiation levels did not increase.
However, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who examined the site last week, said repairs were “essential” to “prevent further degradation” of the nuclear shelter.
Radioactive dust could now leak from the site, inspectors said. While there is no heightened radioactive activity now, they fear the plant is increasingly vulnerable.
Chernobyl’s 25,000-tonne steel shell, known as the New Safe Confinement (NSC), covers the remains of reactor four, which suffered an explosive meltdown in 1986, leading to the disaster.
The shell was installed in 2016 following a huge construction project to stop the release of residual radioactivity from the reactor into the atmosphere.
“The mission confirmed that the NSC had lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability, but also found that there was no permanent damage to its load-bearing structures or monitoring systems,” the IAEA said.
The structure covers both the reactor and the unstable “sarcophagus” that Soviet authorities hastily built after the disaster. It is one of the largest movable land-based structures ever made, costing £1.25 billion ($2.8b) and weighing twice as much as the Eiffel Tower.
Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, said that “limited temporary repairs” have been carried out, but “timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety”.
Chernobyl’s protective dome can no longer fully contain radiation after a Russian drone strike. Photo / Getty Images
The repairs are expected to take place in 2026 and a “full restoration” will be carried out once the war ends, the IAEA added.
The inspection was part of a rare visit to Ukraine in early December to assess the status of key electrical substations supplying the country’s three nuclear sites that remain operational.
Russia’s invasion has raised serious concerns about the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear sites, especially the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe and among the 10 biggest in the world.
There have been repeated strikes close to the plant, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of risking a catastrophe.
In September, Zaporizhzhia was forced to rely on back-up diesel generators for a month after it was severed from Ukraine’s electrical grid. There were concerns that Russia was deliberately manufacturing a crisis to consolidate its control over the plant.
Keith Kellogg, United States President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, said yesterday that the fate of the Zaporizhzhia plant was one of the key sticking points of the peace deal, with the future of the eastern Donbas region.
Voicing his optimism for a potential breakthrough not felt among Kyiv’s European allies, he said: “If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well”.
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