Eric Schmimann worked for 15 years in modern engineering, the equivalent of the Great Pyramid. It will build a huge protective shield for the damaged nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, protecting the world from further fallout from previous nuclear disasters.
The steel shell, which slid down on the railway track reactor No. 4 in 2016, is the world’s largest moving structure. It is as high as a soccer field and weighs about 40,000 tons. Over 45 countries and organizations spent about $1.7 billion.
Schmiman, 78, a retired Washington state civil engineer who was a senior technical advisor to the project, said: “We thought of earthquakes, tornadoes, strong winds, 100 years of snowfall, all sorts of things. We didn’t consider the act of war.”
On February 14th, a drone with a highly explosive warhead that could cost just $20,000, even drilling a hole in a steel shell. Ukrainian officials said the Russians intentionally targeted the structure with the Sharp 136 drone. The Kremlin has denied liability.
The first fire was quickly extinguished, but the waterproof membrane inside the arch insulation has been burning and smoldering for almost three weeks, said Artem Siryi, director of operations for the building, known as the new safe confinement. According to Ukrainian officials and international experts, emergency workers in mountain climbing equipment had to knock down holes in the outer layer of the shield and spray water into a structure designed to remain dry to prevent corrosion.
On March 7, Ukraine declared that the fire had officially disappeared. But by that point, about half of the northern part of the shield had been damaged, Ukrainian officials said. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on March 13 that the fire and smoldering “had caused significant damage to the north and to the south of its roof,” according to an assessment shared by Ukraine with the agency.
The IAEA and Ukrainian nuclear regulators say radiation levels outside of Chernobyl are still normal. However, it is unclear how the shield will be fixed, how much it will cost, and how long it will take.
Nuclear experts warn him. This could delay plans to dismantle damaged reactors and could safely dispose of radioactive waste, which should have begun in the next five years. And there is the risk that the steel shell will begin to corrode, or that there is even more degradation in the risk that a temporary “stone co” Soviet engineer built around the reactor almost 40 years ago is still inside the shell.
“These are the most common types of reactors,” said Sean Burney, a Greenpeace nuclear expert who visited Chernobyl’s damaged reactors after the drone attack.
“Building something that can protect Europe, Ukraine and the world from within is a huge intellectual achievement,” he said. “And now, the Russians have basically blown the holes out physically and insignificantly.”
On Thursday, Greenpeace issued reports that the drone attack severely violated plans for the damaged reactor, and that the shell was not functioning as designed. Greenpeace Ukraine nuclear expert Jan Vande Putte said the entire shell may need to be removed, dismantled and replaced. The IAEA said the shell’s confinement function has been compromised and the structure requires “expanding repair efforts.”
Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other’s energy infrastructure since the full-scale invasion of Moscow in February 2022, but both have stopped launching massive strikes at nuclear power plants.
On Wednesday, as part of negotiations on a potential ceasefire, President Trump suggested that the US will take over Ukraine’s electricity and nuclear power plants and claim this will help protect them.
The drones continue to fly through Chernobyl almost every night, Siriy said in an interview. “Their motor noise has become a familiar sound,” he added. Many may be heading towards the country’s capital, Kiev.
For people of certain ages, the 1986 explosion in Chernobyl was a nightmare after years of fear of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. It sent plumes of radioactive material into the air, causing public health emergencies across Europe, and many people questioned nuclear energy. Initially hiding the extent of the disaster, the Soviets quickly built a concrete, steel emergency “stone co” to envelop the damaged reactor. Authorities also established a 1,000 square miles “exclusion zone” that is not permitted to live in.
The official death toll in the explosion was 31, but many others became ill and eventually died. Cancer rates, particularly incidence of thyroid cancer, increased in areas where radiation was significantly exposed.
Increasingly unstable, Stone Co was never intended to last. It took me decades to come up with a way to replace it.
Chernobyl’s confinement structure, which Schmierman worked on, was an engineering and construction feat designed to protect damaged reactors for 100 years. To minimize radiation exposure, the structure was built about a third of a mile from the damaged reactor and then moved into place. It is about 40 feet thick, with both the outer and inner shells being made of steel. The humidity level between the shells is kept below 40% to prevent corrosion.
Shellman said the outer shell is key to protecting precipitation. The inner shell is designed to hold radioactive dust within the structure, especially if the crane is already set up, if the stone co- and damaged reactors begin to disassemble before safely placing waste in a small container.
By the end of this year, experts were aiming to complete the initial plan, which outlined the initial demolition stage. “Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible,” Syrie said due to the drone attack.
He said experts are evaluating how the shell can be modified. Workers will need to close the first 540 square feet of holes from the drone. But they also need to seal the small holes created by workers trying to put out the fire. They need to repair damaged membranes and insulation in some way, as well as damaged internal structures. And they need to reduce the humidity that arises from hundreds of workers spraying high-power hoses within the structure.
He said workers are exposed to high radiation levels from within, which is likely impossible in the places where confinement shells are currently located. It is also difficult to move the structure and then modify it. What protects the already unstable stone co-co while the work is being carried out?
“Full restoration of the facility is virtually impossible,” Siryi said. “It would probably take hundreds of millions of dollars to get it as close to its original state as possible.”
Schmieman said repairing the structure or building a new one would be extremely expensive. He suggested temporarily covering the hole with something similar to duct tape, so the internal ventilation system could begin to reduce the humidity. “You shouldn’t immediately look for a quick, permanent solution for many holes in a building, but look for a quick way to reduce corrosion,” he said.
One thing that might be helpful, he said: the drone. Mostly due to war, Ukraine developed drone technology faster than most other countries. A small drone, much smaller than the Shahed 136 that pierced the structure, could possibly help assess damage within the shell and fix it.
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed the report.
