The drone strike could have led to radioactive contamination.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has stated that the New Safe Confinement (New Sarcophagus) at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, damaged by a drone strike in February 2025, has lost its primary safety functions.
The New Sarcophagus does not provide localization capability, but its load-bearing structures and monitoring systems have not sustained irreversible damage. This was stated by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
Agency experts recommend continuing restoration and protection work on the structure, including measures for humidity control and an updated corrosion monitoring program. Additionally, modernization of the integrated automatic monitoring system of the original 'sarcophagus,' built immediately after the 1986 disaster, is proposed.
In 2026, additional temporary repairs are planned with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to restore the localization function of the sarcophagus.
The New Safe Confinement (abbreviated NSC, in English New Safe Confinement) is an isolation arch structure over the destroyed Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The arch covered the outdated 'Shelter.' It became the largest movable land structure in the world.
Construction began in 2007. Initially, it was expected that the project would be completed by 2012–2013, but due to insufficient funding, the deadlines were postponed. At the end of November 2016, the arch was successfully slid over the reactor building, after which the process of equipment installation and checks continued. The completion of the project and its commissioning were expected in November 2017, but were later postponed to May 2018, as the contracting company Novarka was unable to complete the necessary work on time. Finally, the NSC was commissioned on July 10, 2019.
The confinement is a multifunctional complex for transforming the 'Shelter' object into an environmentally safe system. It consists of 19 substructures, the main one being a protective structure in the form of an arch with a special double cladding. The project also includes special foundations, western and eastern end walls, non-standard overhead cranes, a multifunctional ventilation system, a technological complex with sections for decontamination, fragmentation, and packaging of radioactive materials, etc.
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