The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission, which visited the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant last week, documented the consequences of the russian drone attack on the Arch of the New Safe Confinement (NSC).
The attack, that took place on 14 February 2025, caused damage to the integrity of the NSC's outer cladding and a prolonged fire, which significantly damaged the Arch's inner sealing membrane.
This mission is being conducted at the request of Ukraine and was prompted by the attack carried out by a Russian strike UAV equipped with a high-explosive charge. The attack damaged the outer and inner claddings of the New Safe Confinement arch, as well as a number of internal structures, components, and systems important for the safety and functions of the NSC, which were designed to support the transformation of the Shelter Object into an environmentally safe system.
The objective of the mission is to perform an independent assessment of the current safety condition of the facility.
On 20 November, a delegation from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM), headed by Director General Mr. Michael Knochenhauer, visited the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
During the visit, Swedish radiation safety experts received detailed information about the current status of the Chornobyl NPP and the key tasks being carried out by the plant’s personnel.
18 November 2025 marks the fifth anniversary of the loading of the first batch of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) into the Spent Fuel Dry Storage Facility (ISF-2) at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On this day in 2020, the first canister was placed into storage during hot trials, and full-scale industrial operation of the facility began in July 2021 after the operating license was obtained.
Over the past five years, a quarter of all spent nuclear fuel from Chornobyl NPP has already been transferred from the old “wet” storage (ISF-1) to ISF-2. This has significantly reduced risks and clearly demonstrates substantial progress in the decommissioning process.
At the end of October, Chornobyl NPP specialists participated in an international workshop on Safe Enclosure of Graphite Power Reactors held in Lyon, France. The event was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) together with the Electricité de France (EDF), namely with its Deconstruction and Waste Projects Department (DP2D).