A structure designed to prevent radioactive leakage at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine is no longer operational after Russian drones targeted it earlier this year, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has found.
The so-called new safe confinement was built as part of a €1.5 billion Europe-led initiative in 2019 to replace the reactor destroyed in the plant’s 1986 meltdown, in which over 30 people died.
But the large steel structure “lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability” when its outer cladding was set ablaze after being struck by Russian drones, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
