Drone attack that Ukraine blamed on Russia blew hole in painstakingly erected €1.5bn shield meant to allow for final clean-up of 1986 meltdown site

Drone attack that Ukraine blamed on Russia blew hole in painstakingly erected €1.5bn shield meant to allow for final clean-up of 1986 meltdown site

The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February, can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced.

In February a drone strike blew a hole in the “new safe confinement”, which was painstakingly built at a cost of €1.5bn ($1.75bn) next to the destroyed reactor and then hauled into place on tracks, with the work completed in 2019 by a Europe-led initiative. The IAEA said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure found the drone impact had degraded the structure.

The 1986 Chornobyl explosion – which happened when Ukraine was under Moscow’s rule as part of the Soviet Union – sent radiation across Europe. In the scramble to contain the meltdown, the Soviets built over the reactor a concrete “sarcophagus” with only a 30-year lifespan. The new confinement was built to contain radiation during the decades-long final removal of the sarcophagus, ruined reactor building underneath it and the melted-down nuclear fuel itself.

  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    741·
    4 months ago

    Yet another example of Russia being the war crime committing aggressor in the war.

    People who take Russia’s side embody values far closer to the Nazis than Ukraine ever has.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    51·
    4 months ago

    bombed

    Chernobyl

    Two words I’d never imagine seeing together in the same sentence

    Whoever decided to do this should go toes first through a wood chipper

      • silasmariner@programming.devEnglish
        71·
        4 months ago

        I think it’s probably just framed that way because Russia never officially took responsibility for it, not because anyone believes Ukraine really did it

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        4 months ago

        Like it or not, that’s journalism 101. You don’t make claims unless you can directly verify them, even if they seem obvious.

        And if you do, you attribute to who said it. Like the UN or IAEA.

        Guardian should have just omitted that blurb from the byline, TBH.

          • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            4 months ago

            Every news site is biased. Read them with that mind.

            As an example, one of my usual sources since like 2015 is Axios. Their site is clean, lean, and they are extremely well sourced in Washington. But they recently got a big cash infusion from OpenAI. And, surprise surprise, they post a small but steady stream of Tech Bro evangelism on the side now.

            RT is generally awful, but sometimes their reporting outside of Russia, where they have incentive to dig, can be good.

            Hence, my bucket for Guardian is “high class liberal catnip .” They are clickbaity. That’s they trend so much here on Lemmy.

            They’re well sourced. Their integrity is leagues beyond, say, rawstory or dailybeast that get spammed on Lemmy. So you have to filter their stories with that in mind.

            And this is pretty much what ALL written news is doing to survive, if they can. Because their competition on YouTube/Facebook/whatever is not bound to the same standards they are.

            If they don’t, they die.

            I used to write small articles for a tech hardware site. The owner chose to take the site down rather than chase the clickbait game.

    • 46_and_2@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      It’s the same people who ordered their soldiers to dig trenches in the irradiated soil close to Chernobyl, in the brief time they occupied it, at the start of Russia’s war. As long as it’s happening away from Putin and his kelptocracy circles, they don’t care about consequences to friends or foes, only how it will benefit them.

  • altasshet@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    Bring in European/NATO country civilian aid to fix it. If Russia strikes again, you now have a reason to escalate support for Ukraine (including interpreting this as an attack on non Ukrainian assets). If they don’t, the sarcophagus gets fixed. Which is the main goal.

  • WanderWisley@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    4 months ago

    I remember watching a real life lore video where the said the elephants foot is still molten and slowly melting through the flood of the basement of Chernobyl and it could eventually hit the ground water that’s underground and it could explode causing an even bigger situation then the original meltdown.