Bombed Chornobyl shelter no longer blocks radiation and needs major repair - IAEA

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 6 Dec 2025 00.52 EST
Last modified on Sat 6 Dec 2025 10.22 EST


The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February, can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced.

In February a drone strike blew a hole in the “new safe confinement”, which was painstakingly built at a cost of €1.5bn ($1.75bn) next to the destroyed reactor and then hauled into place on tracks, with the work completed in 2019 by a Europe-led initiative. The IAEA said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure found the drone impact had degraded the structure.

The 1986 Chornobyl explosion – which happened when Ukraine was under Moscow’s rule as part of the Soviet Union – sent radiation across Europe. In the scramble to contain the meltdown, the Soviets built over the reactor a concrete “sarcophagus” with only a 30-year lifespan. The new confinement was built to contain radiation during the decades-long final removal of the sarcophagus, ruined reactor building underneath it and the melted-down nuclear fuel itself.



The IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, said an inspection 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”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/06/chornobyl-disaster-shelter-no-longer-blocks-radiation-and-needs-major-repair-iaea

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[electric_blue68]

1. Oh. Just "great".

😑😑😑

[AZJonnie]

2. I believe that is what's known as a "war crime" on the part of Russia

One of a great many, obviously, but a particularly deplorable one

[popsdenver]

7. This is very old news

although, thank you for your info, as many people haven't paid much attention to just how RUTHLESS Putin was to intentionally do this horrific act. Now they are going to have to endanger many people, all over again, and the expense to fix it. Detracting from their war effort...........
It also started a fire inside, so it is much more than just patching it.
It is the equivalent of using a tactical nuclear weapon. I am sure that Putin will be targeting Ukraines many nuclear power plants in a similar fashion.........

Maybe he, and all psychopaths, should be euthanized at birth to avoid them all growing up to be Tyrants or Dictators of entire countries.......

[LudwigPastorius]

3. Hey, just 19,960 years to go before it's radiation free!

[nilram]

12. Don't worry! The next containment bldg will be built to last longer.

[cstanleytech]

4. Russia resorting to nuclear terrorism.

[purr-rat beauty]

5. I got a fix!

Stuff the Orange blob in it

The radiation might even put a pep in his step

[moniss]

6. But supposedly

Saddam, then Gaddafi and most recently Iran are the ones who are going to threaten people from a nuclear perspective. Nobody is saying they weren't/aren't bad cats but the guy who is actually purposely releasing radiation gets treated to "concessions", personal enrichment and visits and summits where he is treated like a god. All while he steals the children of another country so he can use them in the sex trade and as slave labor.

[neverforget]

8. I just finished watching Chernobyl yesterday on HBO Max for the 4th time and was wondering

how it was doing. Welp, now I know.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. During the early period of the Ukraine-Russia war

idiot Russian soldiers were driving the tanks and other APVs around the facility (including off the designated roads), literally stirring up the contaminated soil beneath the protective top soil layer that had settled over it for the past couple decades.

THEN they started building encampments and dug trenches in the exclusion zone woods near the facility while they occupied it - Satellite photo shows Russian troops were stationed in Chernobyl's radioactive zone

[neverforget]

11. It's unreal how little Putin values human life.

[BigmanPigman]

9. Tony Bourdain went there with Zamir

?si=HpxSsG3jJMqhfdHe

It was sort of funny but also scary.