Part 1 of 2 Parts
The 69th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference was recently held in Vienna. Representatives from the IAEA’s one hundred and eighty Member States convened from the 15th to the 19th of September at the Agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Addressing the Board of Governors before the Conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi emphasized how the IAEA is supporting the priorities of its Member States through peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. He said in an introductory statement, “The Agency has made significant progress across its flagship initiatives, advancing nuclear technologies to address global challenges in health, food security, environmental sustainability and climate resilience.”
During the conference, delegates will discuss a range of topics, ranging from the 2024 Annual Report and the 2026 budget to activities related to nuclear science, technology and applications, as well as the IAEA’s nuclear safety and security activities and strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of Agency safeguards. They will also discuss other topics such as nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine and safeguards in the Middle East and in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Sessions held in the Plenary Hall, including the statements of officials and delegates, will be livestreamed for the public.
A side event will be held on the topic of damage to and repair of the Chernobyl containment vessel. The arch-shaped New Safe Confinement structure built over the remains of Chernobyl’s destroyed Reactor 4 suffered such extensive damage in a Russian drone strike last February that it may not be possible to restore it to its full original design purposes and life-span of one hundred years.
Chernobyl Reactor 4 was destroyed in the April 1986 accident with a shelter constructed in a matter of months to encase the damaged reactor, which allowed the other reactors at the plant to continue operating. The ruins on the site still contain 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, and so the New Safe Confinement shelter (NSC) was constructed to cover a much larger area including the original shelter. It is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. The New Safe Confinement has a width of two hundred and eighty-one yards, a length of one hundred and seventy-seven yards, a height of one hundred and eight yards and a total weight of thirty six thousand tons and was designed for a lifetime of about one hundred years. It was built nearby in two halves which were transported on specially constructed rail tracks to the current position, where it was completed in 2019.
It has two layers of internal and external cladding around the main steel structure which are about thirteen yards apart. Both of these layers were breached in the drone attack. The NSC was designed to allow for the eventual dismantling of the deteriorating makeshift shelter from 1986 and the management and containment of radioactive waste. It is also designed to withstand temperatures ranging from minus one hundred- and nine-degrees Fahrenheit to plus one hundred- and thirteen-degrees Fahrenheit , a class-three tornado, and an earthquake with a magnitude of six on the Richter scale but it was not designed to withstand missile or drone strikes.
On the morning of February 14th of this year, a drone struck the New Safe Confinement shelter, with security cameras catching the explosion that took place on impact.
Please read Part 2 next