On Friday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that a Russian drone struck the New Safe Confinement shell protecting the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
The shell that covers Reactor 4 was placed there in 2016. On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 overheated and melted through its protective barriers. Thirty operators and firemen died within three months of the accident; more than 100 people were injured by radiation, and millions of people were exposed to radioactive fallout. “The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe,” the World Nuclear Association (WNA) has stated.
The WNA noted of the drone hit on the reactor: “The IAEA said that its onsite team heard an explosion at around 01:50 local time. The drone breached the external steel cladding…
