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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reviewed the scale of the damage caused by a Russian drone strike and subsequent fires to the giant shelter built over the ruins of Chernobyl’s unit 4. Chernobyl shelter’s drone damage includes 330 openings in outer cladding. Hundreds of openings were cut during efforts to extinguish fires.
The IAEA said that investigations continue to determine the exact extent of the damage sustained by the arch-shaped New Safe Confinement (NSC) shelter following the drone strike on the 14th of February.
The impact caused an eighteen square yard hole in the external cladding of the arch, with further damage to a wider area of about two hundred forty-square-yards, as well as to some joints and bolts. It took about three weeks to completely extinguish smoldering fires in the insulation layers of the shelter.
In its update on the situation, the IAEA said, “It took several weeks to completely extinguish the fires caused by the strike. The emergency work resulted in approximately 330 openings in the outer cladding of the NSC arch, each with an average size of 30-50 cm.”. According to information provided to the IAEA team at the site, a preliminary analysis of the physical integrity of the large arch-shaped building identified extensive damage, for example to the stainless-steel panels of the outer cladding, insulation materials as well as to a large part of the membrane – located between the layers of insulation materials – that keep out water, moisture and air.”.
The main crane system, including the maintenance garage area, was damaged and is not currently operational. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are functional but have not been operating since the strike. Radiation and other monitoring systems are also still functional. There has been no increase in radiation levels detected at any time during or since the drone strike.
General Rafael Mariano Grossi is the IAEA Director. He said, “We are gradually getting a more complete picture of the severe damage caused by the drone strike. It will take both considerable time and money to repair all of it.”.
Chernobyl Unit 4 was destroyed in the April 1986 accident with a shelter constructed in a matter of months to encase the damaged unit. This allowed the other units at the plant to continue operating. The encased Unit still contains the molten core of the reactor and an estimated two hundred tons of highly radioactive material.
However, the shelter was not designed for the very long-term. The New Safe Confinement (NSC) was constructed to cover a much larger area including the original shelter. The NSC has a span of two hundred and eighty yards, a length of one hundred and seventy-seven yards, a height of one hundred and eighteen yards and a total weight of thirty-six thousand. It was designed for a lifetime of about one hundred years. The NSC was constructed nearby in two halves which were moved on specially constructed rail tracks to the current position, where it was completed in 2019.
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