Chernobil’s shield is still open and there is no money to close it

When on April 26, 1986 produced 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 gone counting Since the events happened. A Russian drone Shahed Iranian manufacturing and relatively low cost (between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000) caused damage For dozens of millions in the confinement structure of the Chernobil nuclear power plant, according to the first technical and official estimates.

The attack, occurred in the early hours of February 14, 2025, drilled the roof exterior of the call New safe confinement (NSC), a structure 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 Corrosion structurethe filtration of rain and the possible future release of radioactive dust, which raises not only technical challenges, but also financial and diplomatic. Experts such as the American engineer Eric Schmieman, who worked in the design of the NSC for fifteen years, have warned that a complete repair may require not only tens, but also hundreds of millions of dollarsin addition to several years of work, in a highly radioactive environment that complicates the work due to the exposure limits of workers.

A temporary solution will consist of provisionally sealing the opening, but repairing the structure could even imply even displace the shelter again Throughout the rails on which it was built, a monumental effort only feasible in peacetime. 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 It is disproportionate In relation to the cost of the drone used, which underlines the vulnerability of critical infrastructure against low -cost weapons. There are more, since the financial responsibility of the arrangement will be expected to be In Western governmentssince the International Emergency Fund of the European Reconstruction and Development Bank (BERD), endowed with only 25 million euros, is clearly insufficient.

Ukraine and Berd herself have requested a significant expansion of the resources to address both the repair and the 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 tracking the trajectory of the drone, concluded that it was about An intentional attack perpetrated by Russian forces, with possible implications as a war crime.

Activists such as Shaun Burnie, by 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 schedule of Expected dismantling for the original sarcophagus, which should be completed within the life period of life of HUNDRED NSC YEARS. 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 Chernobylonly eleven kilometers from the border with Belarus (ally Moscow strategic) and its past as an area occupied by Russian forces in 2022, underlines the exposure of the site in the context of war. Since then, the complex has become Restricted military zonewhich 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 threatencapsulated under a structure whose vulnerability has now been exposed not only for 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 IMEBANK, Adam Jones

In Xataka | A Russian drone has opened one of the greatest engineering works. The problem: it was the sarcophagus of Chernobil reactor 4

In Xataka | Europe built a shield to contain chernobil radiation. A Russian drone pierced him, and since then he is open