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Efforts continue to eliminate fires in Chernobyl shelter’s roof

In an update on Thursday at 17:00 local time, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant operator said thermal imaging monitoring of the New Safe Confinement was continuing and parts of the exterior cut into “for the final elimination of smouldering areas”.

Workers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have been working at the site since the drone strike on Friday 14 February damaged the roof of the giant structure built to cover Chernobyl’s unit 4.

The Chernobyl plant company (ChNPP) said that the external cladding of the arch-shaped New Safe Confinement (NSC) had a 15 square metre area of damage from the drone, with further damage in areas up to 200 square metres. It said there was also damage to the internal cladding filler and to some bolted connections in the structure.

It says that radiation levels remain within their normal levels at the site – the NSC was built to cover a wide area, including the original rapidly built shelter over the remnants of unit 4 following the accident in 1986.

In its update on Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has experts based at Chernobyl, said: “Firefighters are continuing to put out small fires that keep smouldering and spreading on the roof of the New Safe Confinement.” It added that agency staff’s “measurements continue to show normal gamma radiation dose rate values near the NSC compared to those recorded by the IAEA since it established a continuous presence at the site just over two years ago”………………………………………….
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/chernobyl-shelter-roof-small-fires-efforts-to-eliminate
 World Nuclear News 20th Feb 2025

February 22, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents