Two weeks after it was hit by a drone on February 14, Ukrainian firefighters are still trying to extinguish smouldering fires within the large structure built over the reactor destroyed in the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported.

“Frequent radiation monitoring carried out by Ukraine and independent measurements conducted by the IAEA continue to show normal levels within the NSC as well as elsewhere at the site of the Chornobyl plant,” the agency said on its website Thursday.

According to it, with unrestricted access, the IAEA team based at the site has been closely monitoring the situation following the strike early in the morning on 14 February that pierced a big hole in the New Safe Confinement (NSC), designed to prevent any potential release into the atmosphere of radioactive material from the Shelter Object covering the damaged reactor, and to protect it from external hazards.

Aided by thermal imaging including the use of surveillance drones, Ukrainian experts have located smouldering fires in the insulation between the layers of the arch-shaped NSC structure, injecting water to put them out. Working in shifts, more than 400 emergency response personnel have been participating in the site’s efforts to manage the aftermath of the drone strike, IAEA reported.

“The firefighters and other responders are working very hard in difficult circumstances to manage the impact and consequences of the drone strike. It was clearly a serious incident in terms of nuclear safety, even though it could have been much worse. As I have stated repeatedly during this devastating war, attacking a nuclear facility must never happen,” Director General Grossi said.

Further underlining persistent nuclear safety challenges during the military conflict, the IAEA team at the Chornobyl site has reported multiple air raid alarms during the past week, at times forcing the suspension of the activities to extinguish the fires in the NSC roof. The IAEA was also informed of the presence of drones within five kilometers of the site, including two above one of the intermediate spent fuel storage facilities.

It is noted that an IAEA expert team observed the remains of a drone that Ukraine said were collected following the strike on the NSC. The team observed drone parts that they assessed are consistent with a Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicle. However, the team did not make any further assessment regarding the origin of the drone, the release specifies.