Four tonnes of highly radioactive dust sit inside the crumbling shell of Chernobyl’s reactor four, behind a protective dome that no longer works.

Greenpeace Ukraine warned Tuesday that the New Safe Confinement — the €1.5 billion structure built to seal off the world’s worst nuclear disaster — has lost its primary safety function after a Russian drone punched through its outer wall in February last year. With the dome compromised, the older concrete sarcophagus inside is at heightened risk of collapse.

That sarcophagus was thrown together in the months after the 1986 explosion. It was always supposed to be dismantled. Now it can’t be — because the damaged confinement structure around it can’t safely support the work.

“If a missile or drone hits it directly, or even falls somewhere nearby […] it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area,” plant director Sergiy Tarakanov told AFP. “No one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that.”

The IAEA confirmed in December that the drone strike had degraded the steel structure and that it no longer blocks radiation. Radiation levels at the site have remained stable so far, but that depends on nothing else going wrong in an active war zone.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot estimated last month that repairs will cost roughly €500 million. Ukrainian and international donors have agreed on a four-year repair timeline, but Greenpeace says continued Russian attacks on the plant and its power supply make major engineering work nearly impossible.

The Greenpeace report, authored by engineer Eric Schmieman — who spent years designing the New Safe Confinement — is being submitted to Ukraine’s prosecutor general as evidence of Russian war crimes. It arrives days before the 40th anniversary of the original disaster.

“Radioactive particles do not recognise borders,” Tarakanov said.

Sources