A drone attack early this morning caused a fire on the building confining the remains of the reactor destroyed in the 1986 Chornobyl accident, a deeply concerning incident that underlines the persistent risks to nuclear safety during the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The IAEA team based at the site – who heard the explosion at 01:50am local time followed by smoke and associated fire visible from their dormitory rooms – were informed by Ukraine that a drone had struck the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a large structure built to prevent any radioactive release from the damaged reactor unit 4 and to protect it from any external hazard. The IAEA team could see a breach of the outer layer of the NSC that occurred following the detonation.
Read more…
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency
Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter
Related:
- What Happened to the Soviet Superpower’s Nuclear Arsenal? Clues for the Nuclear Security Summit
August 18, 2012
Twenty years ago Russia and fourteen other newly-independent states emerged from the ruins of the Soviet empire, many as nations for the first time in history. As is typical in the aftermath of the collapse of an empire, this was followed by a period of chaos, confusion, and corruption. At that same moment, as the ...