Technicians worked on the arched steel structure of Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4 after a Russian drone strike created a significant breach, jeopardizing safety amid freezing conditions. The deliberate attack happened early Friday and is seen as one of the most dangerous since the war began, although radiation levels stayed stable. Ukrainian officials condemned the strike as an audacious gamble that risked a nuclear disaster, especially as it coincided with an important international meeting in Munich, highlighting ongoing tensions in the region.
Five technicians secured by wires worked near the curved top of an arched steel structure that loomed the equivalent of 40 stories high, trying to extinguish the last bits of smoldering insulation left by a drone strike.
The breach was also deliberate, Ukrainian officials said, punched through at 1:59 a.m. on Friday by a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead.
Despite the strike, radiation levels at Chernobyl remained normal on Friday. Far below that arched hood, the concrete-and-steel sarcophagus encasing the reactor and highly radioactive debris held.
Ukrainian authorities described the strike as audacious, hitting a nuclear power plant on the eve of a gathering of world leaders in Munich and risking a disaster.
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