Agency: The protective shield of the Chernobyl power plant has been damaged

According to Isna, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that recent inspections of the containment steel structure, which was completed in 2019, showed that a drone strike in February, three years after Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, destroyed the structure.

According to Reuters News agency, “Rafael Grossi”, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement on Saturday: “The mission of inspectors confirmed that the protective structure has lost its basic safety functions, including containment capability. It was also determined that there was no permanent damage to the load-bearing structures or its monitoring systems.”

Steps have been taken to rebuild the protective shield, Grossi said, but comprehensive reconstruction is still necessary to prevent further destruction and ensure long-term nuclear safety.

The United Nations reported on February 14 that Ukrainian officials claimed that a drone struck the plant with an explosive warhead, causing a fire and damage to the protective shield installed around reactor number four, which was damaged in the 1986 disaster.

Ukraine says the drone was from Russia, but Moscow denies the attack on the nuclear power plant.

The United Nations also announced in February that radiation levels were still normal and there was no report of a radiation summit.

The 1986 Chernobyl explosion spread radioactive fallout across Europe, prompting Soviet authorities to mobilize large numbers of people and equipment to deal with the incident. The last active reactor of this power plant was closed in 2000.

Russia took control of the plant and surrounding areas for more than a month in the first weeks of its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as its forces initially attempted to advance toward the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

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