A protective shield at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in war-torn Ukraine, built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 disaster, can no longer perform its main safety function due to drone damage, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Friday (Dec 5), a strike Ukraine has attributed to Russia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure completed in 2019 found that the drone impact in February, three years into Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, had degraded the structure.
