Vienna, December 6: A protective steel structure built to contain radioactive material at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant has lost its primary safety functions after being damaged by a drone strike earlier this year, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said an inspection last week found that the February strike had degraded the “New Safe Confinement” structure, completed in 2019 to secure the remnants of Reactor No. 4, which exploded in 1986 in one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.
The inspection “confirmed that the protective structure had lost its primary safety functions, including its confinement capability, but also found that there was no permanent damage to its load-bearing structures or monitoring systems,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.
Grossi said repairs had been carried out in recent months, but warned that “comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety”.
Ukrainian authorities reported in February that a drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the site, sparked a fire and damaged protective cladding around the destroyed reactor. Kyiv blamed Russia for the attack, while Moscow denied involvement.
Radiation levels remained stable after the incident and there were no signs of leakage, the United Nations said at the time. The 1986 explosion at Chernobyl dispersed radioactive material across Europe and triggered an enormous cleanup operation by Soviet authorities. The plant’s last functioning reactor was shut down in 2000.
Russian forces occupied the Chernobyl exclusion zone for more than a month during the opening phase of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine as they attempted to advance toward Kyiv.
The IAEA said its inspection coincided with a countrywide assessment of wartime damage to Ukraine’s electricity substations as the conflict nears its fourth year.
