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40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a threat to humanity

2026-04-25 20:23:00, Blog CNA

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

Reactor number 4, which exploded on April 26, 1986 at Chernobyl, marked the worst nuclear accident to date.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

Up close, the NCG sarcophagus looks almost makeshift, massive slabs stacked like giant building blocks, with rust glistening at the joints. Inside, 180 tons of nuclear fuel and four to five tons of radioactive dust remain trapped.

The NSC was built to buy time: to allow the unstable sarcophagus to be safely dismantled over decades, while protecting itself from the consequences in the event of a collapse.

Chernobyl was occupied in the first weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with a drone attack on the facility three years later.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

At the northwest corner of the roof, a temporary patch marks the spot where a cheap $20,000 Russian drone ripped through the structure on February 14, 2025, blasting a hole in the arch and compromising the very function for which the arch was built.

"If the sarcophagus collapses, over a hundred tons of nuclear fuel will be released into the air," said the plant's general director, Serhii Tarakanov.

A full overhaul is required within four years, Ukrainian officials and Western experts say, or the NSC's 100-year lifespan can no longer be guaranteed. It is estimated to cost up to 500 million euros (£432 million), money that the financially strapped Ukrainian government has yet to find.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

Meanwhile, the war continues in Ukraine and Russia has repeatedly launched drones and missiles along flight paths near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, increasing the risk of another disaster.

On the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, one of the most vulnerable places in the world remains under threat.

If the sarcophagus collapses, whether from an impact, structural failure or time, experts say it would release another cloud of radioactive particles into the air with no protective measures to contain it.

"The collapse of the sarcophagus would be a major risk to those working at the Chernobyl plant and would delay dealing with the disaster for many more years," said Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace.

Beyond the financial and war costs, there is the question of how to repair the containment building. The high levels of radiation directly above the damaged area mean that workers can legally spend no more than about 20 hours a year in that area before reaching their annual dose limit.

Twenty-eight people died from acute radiation sickness in the weeks that followed. About 116,000 were evacuated. Radioactive particles spread northwest across Europe. The disaster was first discovered not in the Soviet Union, but in Sweden a few days later, when a worker at a nuclear power plant set off radiation alarms on his way to work.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

In his book on Chernobyl, Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy argues that the disaster helped create a modern Ukrainian national consciousness by exposing the failures of the Soviet system. For many, he writes, it was a moment of rupture: a sudden clarity about the nature of the system they lived under.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

The full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022 was another moment of national unity, and again Chernobyl was included in it. Russian forces crossed the border on February 24, 2022, and moved directly into the plant, using the route through Belarus that passes within kilometers of the exclusion zone.

40 years after the Chernobyl disaster / The nuclear power plant still poses a

Upon entering the 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone, the first thing you notice is the army, checkpoints, soldiers, the occasional armored vehicle. If you walk deeper, the forest invades you, pine trees stretch out on either side, small villages appear through the tree line. The houses are abandoned and small signs on some of the doors note how many people once lived there./The Guardian