Accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine

At dawn on Friday, a Russian drone rammed the sarcophagus over unit No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The drone contained a high-explosive warhead. The drone pierced the shelter, creating a hole much larger than a human height.

“A strike on the protective structure of the fourth power plant of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant poses a real threat of radiation pollution, the consequences of which are unpredictable,” said Svitlana Grinchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

The outer skin of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant sarcophagus continued to smoke from the impact for more than a day. There was no large-scale fire because immediately after the impact, the rescuers managed to localize the fire.

The insulation, located under the metal structures of the sarcophagus, was smoldering. The firefighters had to extinguish it in very difficult conditions: the height of the building is more than a hundred meters (this is the level of approximately 35 floors). The weather was also difficult with wind, snow and frost.

In general, the sarcophagus suffered significant damage: up to 15 squares of the roof of the protective structure were destroyed, and another 200 squares were deformed. The State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone has not yet reported how much the roof repair will cost and when it can begin.

As a result of the impact, the shelter structure was damaged.

Slavutich returned to Ukrainian control. Retreating from Chernobyl, Russian troops blew up a bridge in the exclusion zone and set up a dense maze of antipersonnel mines, tripwires, and booby traps around the inactive plant.

The Russian Defense Ministry described the withdrawal of troops from northern Ukraine as a "planned regrouping of troops" for the sake of "stepping up action in priority areas," referring to the fighting in Donbas.

On the same day, the military began leaving the Chernobyl NPP in the direction of Belarus. On the morning of March 31, the Russian military notified the personnel of Ukraine's Energoatom that they were leaving Chernobyl NPP. At the same time, the Russian military and representatives of Rosatom forced the Chernobyl NPP personnel to sign a document on the absence of claims against the Russian side - the so-called "Act of Acceptance and Transfer of Security of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The retreating Russian troops took with them 169 captured members of the National Guard of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, who had previously provided security for the plant.

Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that the Russian army will "radically reduce" its military activity in the directions of Kyiv and Chernihiv.

More than 10,000 hectares of forest are burning in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a Ukrainian official warned.

"Due to the capture of the exclusion zone by Russian troops, fire control and elimination are impossible," said Lyudmila Denisova, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights.
"This threatens Ukraine, Belarus, and European countries with radiation."

She appealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send experts and firefighting equipment as soon as possible to prevent "irreparable consequences not only for Ukraine but also for the whole world."
Ukrainian officials claim that the fires in the region were caused by Russian shelling. According to Denisova, dry and windy weather can increase the intensity and scale of fires, and it will be difficult to deal with them even in peacetime.
The exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant was closed after the reactor accident in 1986. This abandoned area is still considered dangerous because the soil contains radiation from the time of the great disaster.

Authorities warn that the site itself still contains nuclear storage facilities and waste dumps that could cause a catastrophe if set on fire.

At about 4-5:00 p.m., a fire broke out on the western Chernobyl radioactive trace on the border of the Narodichi settlement and the Uzh River floodplain. On the first day, the fire spread over an area of more than 20 hectares. The wind increased the intensity of burning and on April, 4 the fire captured the forest area of 20 hectares in the exclusion zone near the village Vladimirovka on the territory of Kotovsk forestry. To extinguish the fire were involved fire trucks and aviation, the elimination involved 362 people and 89 pieces of equipment, among which were planes and helicopters. Extinguishing was complicated by high radiation background. During the week 280 sorties were made and about 1500 tons of water were dropped. From the first day aviation was working.

The construction of the sarcophagus over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant destroyed in 1986 was completed in 2016. The construction was financed by about 45 countries and cost more than one and a half billion dollars in total.

After the accident, vegetation and animals in forests and mountainous areas showed a particularly high uptake of radiocesium, with the highest recorded levels of 137 Cs found in forest foods. This is due to the constant processing of radiocesium, especially in forest ecosystems.

Particularly high concentrations of 137 Cs activity were found in mushrooms, berries, and game, and these high levels persisted for two decades. 

Therefore, the relative importance of forests in contributing to the radiological exposure of the population of several affected countries has increased over time. Primarily, the combination of downward migration in soil and physical decay of 137 Cs will contribute to any further slow long-term decline in forest food contamination.

An international conference was held in Vienna at the IAEA, the EEC, and the WHO on "A Decade After Chernobyl: Assessing the Radiological Consequences of the Accident.

On April 26, 1986, during improperly conducted low power tests, control of the reactor of Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union was lost, leading to an explosion and fire that destroyed the reactor building and released significant amounts of radionuclides into the atmosphere. Because no safety precautions were taken before the tests, the uranium fuel in the reactor overheated and melted the protective barriers.