This isn’t the first time Chernobyl has been in the spotlight during the nearly four-year Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The protective shield built around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine is no longer able to fulfill its function of confining radioactive waste due to a drone attack that occurred earlier this year, warns the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The New Safe Confinement (NSC) in Chernobyl, which was “severely damaged” by the drone attack in February, “has lost its main security functions, including its confinement capacity”, indicates the IAEA in a statement released on Friday.
Ukraine accused Russia of launching the February 14 attack on Chernobyl – an accusation the Kremlin immediately denied.
The attack hit the Nuclear Security Center (CSN), causing a fire and damaging the protective coating, according to the IAEA.
The nuclear watchdog agency recommends a major renovation of the huge steel structure, installed several years ago to enable cleanup operations and ensure the safety of the site, almost four decades after the worst nuclear accident in history.
“Limited temporary repairs have been carried out to the roof, but a complete and timely restoration remains essential to avoid further damage and ensure long-term nuclear safety,” advises IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
Rafael Grossi adds that there was no permanent damage to the load-bearing structures or the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) monitoring systems.
The IAEA, which maintains a permanent presence there, “will continue to do everything in its power to support efforts to completely restore nuclear safety”, guarantees Grossi.
This is not the first time that Chernobyl has been in the spotlight during the nearly four-year Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces seized the nuclear plant and its surroundings in the first days of the invasion, occupying the plant in February 2022 and holding employees hostage. They left the plant and returned control to Ukrainian personnel just over a month later.
Fragments of a drone that hit the New Safe Confinement in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone after the February 14, 2025 attack (Artem Derkachov/Frontliner/Getty Images)
The NSC is a massive arch-shaped steel structure built at the Chernobyl complex to cover the destroyed No. 4 reactor and contain its radioactive material.
As the largest mobile land structure in the world, the colossal hangar is a monumental feat of engineering. Built in 2010 and completed in 2019, it was designed to last 100 years and played a crucial role in the safety of the site.
The project cost 2.1 billion euros and was financed by contributions from more than 45 countries and donor organizations through the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which in 2019 considered the initiative “the largest international collaboration ever in the area of nuclear safety”.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion devastated Chernobyl reactor No. 4 in the then Soviet Union, spreading radioactivity across vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other countries.
More than 30 people have died in the nearby city of Pripyat, Ukraine, and many more have suffered from symptoms resulting from radiation exposure since then, according to the IAEA and the World Health Organization. Rates of birth defects and cancer among residents of the radiation-exposed area are still quite high.
