Chernobyl nuclear power plant new safe confinement arch: event on the night of 13th -14th February, 2025
On the night of 13th to 14th February, a drone crashed into the confinement arch of destroyed reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, causing a perforation in the wall and a fire at the point of impact, which was brought under control on the morning of 14th February 2025. No increase in the level of radioactivity has been detected in the environment.
The images relayed by the media do not show any major damage inside the arch.
This arch was built to protect the environment and enable dismantling of the reactor. It supplements the historic sarcophagus that was built just after the accident.
Since the start of the conflict, ASNR has been monitoring radioactivity levels in Ukraine. This monitoring relies in particular on data from automatic monitors on the Ukrainian website SaveEcoBot, which aggregates measurements of ambient radioactivity in the air from several sources. It also relies on data from the EURDEP European network, transmitted by the authorities of European countries.
Recent analysis of available data*, and in particular that from the night of 13th-14th February 2025, shows no increase in radioactivity in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl plant. ASNR will continue to monitor the situation on a regular basis.
* Data sources:
- SSE: State Specialized Enterprise “Chernobyl NPP” (SSE ChNPP) (https://chnpp.gov.ua/ua/)
Ecocenter: Ukrainian public agency for management of the Chernobyl exclusion zone (http://dazv.gov.ua/)