The sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in war-torn Ukraine, built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 disaster, was unable to perform its key safety function due to damage from a drone attack – which Ukraine attributes to Russia – according to recent information released by the UN nuclear watchdog.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says an inspection last week of the steel containment structure, completed in 2019, revealed that a drone impact in February, three years after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused the structure to deteriorate.
IEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the inspection mission “confirmed that the protection structure had lost its key security functions, including containment capacity, but also confirmed that no permanent damage had been caused to its support structures or monitoring systems.”
Grossi said repairs are being implemented, “but full restoration is still necessary to avoid further deterioration and ensure long-term nuclear safety.”
The United Nations reported on February 14 that Ukrainian authorities had confirmed that a drone carrying a high-explosive weapon had crashed into the plant, causing a fire and damaging the protective coating around reactor number four, which was destroyed in the 1986 disaster.
Ukrainian authorities stated that the drone was Russian. Moscow negotiated to attack Central Station.
Radiation levels remained normal and stable and no radiation leaks were recorded, according to the United Nations in February.
The Chernobyl explosion in 1986 caused radiation to spread throughout Europe, and prompted the Soviet authorities to mobilize a large number of men and equipment to deal with the accident.
The plant’s last operating reactor was shut down in 2000. Russia occupied the plant and its surrounding areas for more than a month in the first weeks of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when its forces initially tried to advance on Kiev.
The IOI conducted the inspection at the same time as a national study on damage to electrical substations caused by the four-year war between Ukraine and Russia.