Eric Schmieman spent 15 years working on the modern engineering equivalent of the Great Pyramid – building a giant protective shield for the damaged reactor at Chernobyl. This shield aims to safeguard the world from further fallout from the worst-ever nuclear disaster.
The steel shell, which was slid into place over Reactor No. 4 on railroad tracks in 2016, is the world’s largest movable structure. It is as tall as a football field and weighs almost 40,000 tons. The construction of this shield involved almost $1.7 billion in funding from over 45 countries and organizations.
“We conducted a lot of safety analysis, considering various potential disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, heavy winds, extreme snowfall, and other possible risks. However, we did not anticipate acts of war,” stated Mr. Schmieman, a retired civil engineer from Washington state who served as a senior technical adviser on the project.

On February 14th, a drone equipped with a high-explosive warhead struck the steel shell, likely costing as little as $20,000 to produce. Ukrainian officials claim that the Russians deliberately targeted the structure with a Shahed 136 drone. However, the Kremlin denies any responsibility for the incident.

While the initial fire was quickly extinguished, a waterproof membrane within the insulation of the arch continued to burn and smolder for nearly three weeks. According to Artem Siryi, the head of the operations department for the structure called the New Safe Confinement, emergency workers had to create holes in the shield’s outer layer to hunt for and extinguish the fire. They also sprayed water inside the structure designed to stay dry to prevent corrosion.
On March 7th, Ukraine declared the fire officially extinguished. However, by that point, roughly half of the northern section of the shield had been damaged. The International Atomic Energy Agency stated on March 13th that the fires had caused extensive damage to the northern side and, to a lesser extent, the southern side of the roof. Radiation levels outside Chernobyl remain normal, but it is uncertain how the shield will be repaired, the cost of repair, and the timeline for the process.

“The reason the international community invested so much money and time in building this structure is that they understand the scale of the radiologic threat inside,” stated Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist at Greenpeace who visited the damaged reactor after the drone attack.
“It is a remarkable achievement to construct something that can protect Europe, Ukraine, and the world from the dangers within the reactor. Now the Russians have essentially punched a hole in it, both physically and metaphorically,” Burnie added.

Greenpeace released a report stating that the drone attack severely compromised plans for the damaged reactor, rendering the shell ineffective. The entire shell may need to be dismantled and replaced, a view shared by Mr. Schmieman and Mr. Siryi. The I.A.E.A. stated that the shell’s confinement function had been compromised and that extensive repairs were necessary.
Both Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other’s energy infrastructure since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022, but both have avoided launching significant strikes on nuclear power plants.

On Wednesday, President Trump suggested that the United States take over Ukraine’s electrical and nuclear power sites as part of potential cease-fire negotiations, arguing that this would help protect them. Drones continue to fly over Chernobyl almost every night, with many believed to be heading towards Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

For individuals of a certain age, the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, following years of heightened fears of nuclear warfare between the Soviet Union and the United States, was a nightmare. It released a plume of radioactive material into the air, caused a public health emergency across Europe, and raised concerns about nuclear energy. The Soviets initially hid the extent of the disaster and hastily constructed a concrete and steel emergency “sarcophagus” to contain the damaged reactor. They also established a 1,000-square-mile “exclusion zone” where no one was allowed to live.
The explosion’s official death toll was 31, but many more people fell ill or eventually died. Cancer rates, particularly for thyroid cancer, increased in heavily exposed areas.