Impact Russian drone hitting Chernobyl power plant ‘protecting world from radiation' could have on Earth if significantly damaged

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed 'significant' damage to the Chernobyl power plant after it was hit by a Russian attack drone. Here's what you need to know about impairment to the structure.

Zelensky confirmed news of the strike on Thursday (February 13), writing in a post on Twitter that a drone equipped with a 'high-explosive warhead' struck the shelter over Chernobyl's destroyed fourth power unit, which is 'protecting the world from radiation'.

The shelter Zelensky is referring to is Chernobyl’s New Safe Confinement (NSC); a structure which was put into position in November 2016 to both prevent the release of contaminated material, and stave off external impacts such as extreme weather.

Russia has denied the attack, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling press: “There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities, any such claim isn’t true, our military doesn’t do that."

Why is there a structure over Chernobyl?

Work on the NSC began in 2010, 24 years after the Number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant went out of control during a test and exploded, causing damage to the reactor building and sending large amounts of radiation out into the atmosphere.

The initial blast caused the death of two workers, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and over the next three months the release of radiation into the atmosphere resulted in the deaths of 28 firemen and emergency clean-up workers.

Almost 115,000 people were evacuated and relocated, and there have been at least 1,800 documented cases of thyroid cancer in patients who were children at the time the incident occurred.

The cleanup involved decontamination and construction projects, including the creation of the 'sarcophagus' over the reactor to contain the remaining radioactive material.

The structure is built to contain radioactive material (Getty Stock Photo)

What happens if the structure is damaged?

Thankfully, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has said that the radiation background limits remain normal in the wake of the strike, though Zelensky said they are being 'constantly monitored'.

However, there are still a number of radioactive elements present at the site which are linked to serious health issues.

The IAEA explains that while many of the elements released during the 1986 explosion were 'short lived', strontium and caesium have half-lives of 29 and 30 years respectively.

A half-life is the amount of time it takes for a substance to reduce to half of its initial value, meaning isotopes Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 are still present in the area.

Exposure to strontium can lead to leukaemia, the IAEA reports, while caesium affects the entire body, especially harming the liver and spleen.

The area around Chernobyl was evacuated after the nuclear explosion (Getty Stock Photo)

What is the likelihood of radiation being released?

This question was addressed in 2022 by Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, as he spoke to Live Science after Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine.

Commenting on what might happen if Chernobyl was bombed, Lyman said that it might take more than an 'inadvertent shelling' of the structure to 'mobilize a significant amount of radioactive material'.

However, he did note a 'concern' in the storage of spent fuel - the radioactive elements that were used to fuel the power plant.

He explained: "The most serious concern is the wet storage of spent fuel, because that's probably the most concentrated quantity of radioactive material on-site. Generally, spent nuclear fuel still has decay heat. And so if it's in wet storage, there has to be some way of removing that heat.

"If there was disruption to cooling … or if there was a breach of the pool that led to draining water, then that fuel could conceivably heat up to the point where it might burn. That's probably the biggest threat."

If the fuel burns, it is at risk of releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the environment. Lyman noted that burning of that type could 'take days or weeks'.