When on April 26, 1986 there was an explosion in reactor 4 of the Chernobil nuclear plant, no one could imagine the impact it was going to have. In a short time it became the worst nuclear accident in history. Today, almost 40 years later, the fateful area is in danger again. The impenetrable shield that had contained the radiation so far has not been able to with an unforeseen: the arrival of a war.
The attack of a drone. We have been counting it since the events happened. A Iranian -manufacturing Russian drone and relatively low cost (between 50,000 and 100,000 dollars) caused dozens of millions in the confinement structure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to the first technical and official estimates.
The attack, occurred in the early hours of February 14, 2025, pierced the outer roof of the so -called new safe confinement (NSC), a structure of 1.5 billion euros designed to encapsulate the unstable Soviet sarcophagus that covers the number four reactor, destroyed in the nuclear disaster. Although an immediate increase in radiation was not detected, the damage seriously compromises the integrity of the enclosure: in addition to the hole, the impact caused a persistent fire in the inner lining that required more than two weeks to be controlled and the drilling of 200 additional holes to quell it with water.
A technical challenge. The situation has exposed the structure to corrosion, rain filtration and the possible future radioactive dust release, which raises not only technical challenges, but also financial and diplomatic. Experts such as the American engineer Eric Schmieman, who worked on the design of the NSC for fifteen years, have warned that a complete repair may require not only tens, but hundreds of millions of dollars, in addition to several years of work, in a highly radioactive environment that complicates the work by the limits of exposure of the workers.
A temporary solution will consist of provisionally sealing the opening, but repairing the structure could even imply even moving the refuge again along the rails on which it was built, a monumental effort only feasible in times of peace. The complexity of the operation is aggravated by the damage to critical areas of the enclosure, including proximity to the area of remote cranes that were used to dismantle the internal structure and remove nuclear waste.
The New Safe Confinement now damaged
A disproportionate cost to divide. The economic impact of the attack is disproportionate in relation to the cost of the drone used, which underlines the vulnerability of critical infrastructure against low -cost weapons. There is more, since the financial responsibility of the arrangement will be expected in Western governments, since the International Emergency Fund of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (BERD), endowed with only 25 million euros, is clearly insufficient.
Ukraine and BERD itself have requested significant extension of resources to address both reparation and long -term challenges of the dismantling of the nuclear complex. We remember that the NSC was originally funded by 26 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Turkey and even Russia, which adds a layer of irony to the attack, since Moscow itself helped to pay for the structure it has now damaged.
War, propaganda and “nuclear terror.” Russia at first denied his responsibility, blaming the Kyiv government and qualifying the provocation attack, but the Ukrainian authorities, after tracing the trajectory of the dron, concluded that it was an intentionally intentioned attack perpetrated by the Russian forces, with possible implications such as war crime.
Activists such as Shaun Burnie, of Greenpeace Ukraine, consider that this act is part of a “nuclear terror” campaign deliberate by the Kremlin against Ukraine and Europe, designed to generate prolonged fear and insecurity. The attack also involves a setback to the dismantling schedule foreseen for the original sarcophagus, which should be completed within the life period of one hundred years of the NSC. No doubt, without repairs, that horizon is now uncertain, and environmental risk, although contained for now, could be aggravated over time.
Chernobyl and the geopolitical board. It is the last of the legs to be analyzed after the incident. The location of Chernobil, only eleven kilometers from the border with Belarus (Moscow strategic ally) and its past as a area occupied by Russian forces in 2022, underlines the exhibition of the site in the context of the war. Since then, the complex has become a restricted military zone, which limits the possibilities of direct international intervention and has forced both Russian and Ukrainian troops to carry out fortifications on contaminated land.
Meanwhile, radioactive waste buried under the installation continues to represent a silent threat, encapsulated under a structure whose vulnerability has now been exposed not only by the passage of time, but by modern war. What was once a monument to global cooperation to contain a catastrophe of the past, has become, again, a symbol of the fragility of the international order against armed conflict and geopolitical negligence.
Image | Iaea Imagebank, Adam Jones
In WorldOfSoftware | A Russian drone has opened one of the greatest engineering works. The problem: it was the sarcophagus of Chernobil reactor 4
In WorldOfSoftware | Europe built a shield to contain chernobil radiation. A Russian drone pierced him, and since then he is open
