IAEA inspection finds drone damage at Chornobyl shelter has degraded its primary safety functions, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Thursday, after an impact Ukraine has blamed on Russia and Moscow denied.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure completed in 2019 identified an impact from a drone in February that “had degraded the structure.”
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Director General Rafael Grossi said the mission “confirmed that the (protective structure) 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.”
Grossi said repairs had already been carried out, but warned that “comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety.” The agency said radiation levels remained normal and stable and there were no reports of radiation leaks at the site.
Ukrainian authorities said the drone was Russian, a claim Moscow denied. The IAEA report did not attribute responsibility for the strike.
The damaged structure was built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, which sent radiation across Europe and prompted Soviet authorities to mobilize large numbers of personnel and equipment to deal with the accident. The plant’s last operating reactor was shut down in 2000.
Russian forces occupied the Chornobyl plant and the surrounding exclusion zone for more than a month in the first weeks of their February 2022 invasion, when they initially tried to advance on Kyiv.
The IAEA said the inspection of the protective shield was carried out at the same time as a countrywide survey of war-related damage to electricity substations caused by the nearly four-year conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Experts have previously warned that damage to structures that contain long-lived radioactive material could increase long-term risks and complicate maintenance and decommissioning activity at the site. The IAEA’s assessment that load-bearing and monitoring systems were not permanently damaged will be critical to planning the repairs and ongoing safety monitoring.
The watchdog did not report any immediate changes to worker or public radiation exposure levels. It said continued oversight and prompt restoration work are needed to prevent future degradation of the confinement system and to preserve nuclear safety at the site long term.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
