You’ve seen the drone footage of the rusted Ferris wheel. Maybe you’ve binged the HBO miniseries. But honestly, most of the "spooky" YouTube videos of the Zone miss the point. The real story isn't the empty swingsets in Pripyat; it’s the colossal, high-tech wrestling match happening at Chernobyl reactor 4 today.
Right now, a massive steel arch called the New Safe Confinement (NSC) sits over the wreckage. It’s the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. It’s huge. It’s shiny. And it’s the only thing keeping the most dangerous room on Earth from leaking into the Ukrainian sky.
The reactor isn't just sitting there. It's "breathing." Not literally, of course, but the chemical and radiological processes inside that tomb are constant. Scientists are still monitoring neutron counts, temperature shifts, and the slow, agonizing decay of the "Lava" that formed during the meltdown.
The Elephant in the Room (and it’s made of Corium)
When people talk about Chernobyl reactor 4 today, they usually mention the Elephant’s Foot. It sounds like a legend, but it’s a very real, very terrifying lump of corium—a mixture of nuclear fuel, melted concrete, and sand. In 1986, it was so radioactive that a few minutes of exposure was a guaranteed death sentence.
It has changed. It's decaying.
It’s cracking.
Basically, the Elephant’s Foot has the consistency of glass now. It’s still hot, but the real worry for engineers like those at the State Specialized Enterprise (SSE) Chernobyl NPP isn't just the radiation—it's the dust. As the corium breaks down, it turns into fine, radioactive particles. If those get kicked up into the air, the New Safe Confinement has to work overtime to filter them out.
Why the neutron spikes actually matter
Back in 2021, news outlets went into a minor frenzy about "smoldering" embers at the plant. It sounded like the reactor was waking up. Anatomically speaking, what happened was a spike in neutron emissions in Room 305/2.
Think of it like this: rainwater used to leak through the old, crappy Soviet "Sarcophagus." Water actually slows down neutrons, which, counterintuitively, makes them more likely to hit other uranium atoms and trigger more fission. When the new arch was slid into place in 2016, the reactor dried out. You’d think that’s good, right? Well, in some specific pockets of fuel, the lack of water changed the physics just enough to cause a temporary surge in activity.
It wasn't a "pre-explosion." It was a reminder that we don't fully control what's happening in there. We just observe it.
The New Safe Confinement: A $1.6 Billion Umbrella
The NSC is a feat of engineering that makes the pyramids look like a weekend DIY project. It’s designed to last 100 years. It was funded by the Chernobyl Shelter Fund and managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
It had to be built away from the reactor because the radiation levels directly above the hole were too high for workers to endure for long. They built it in two halves, joined them, and then slid the whole thing—36,000 tons of steel—over the old structure on rails.
What’s actually inside the arch?
If you stepped inside the NSC today (with a very special permit and a lot of lead shielding), it would look like a giant, sterile aircraft hangar. It’s climate-controlled to prevent the old Sarcophagus from rusting further.
Inside, there are giant overhead cranes. These aren't your typical construction cranes. They’re heavy-duty, remotely operated robots designed to eventually dismantle the unstable parts of the original 1986 shelter.
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The plan is to eventually take the whole thing apart. Slowly. Piece by piece. But we aren't there yet. The radiation is still a massive hurdle for the electronics in those robots.
Life and War at the Reactor
We have to talk about the 2022 invasion. When Russian forces occupied the Chernobyl site for five weeks, it was the first time a nuclear facility had been treated as a military objective.
Staff were held at gunpoint. They worked 600 hours straight.
Monitoring systems were damaged. Power was cut. This is the human side of Chernobyl reactor 4 today. The scientists who stay there aren't just doing a job; they are the literal guardians of a global threat. Thankfully, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by Rafael Mariano Grossi, has since re-established a permanent presence. They’ve confirmed that while some equipment was looted, the structural integrity of the NSC remains solid.
Dealing with the Fuel Containing Materials (FCMs)
The biggest challenge for the next fifty years is the FCMs. There are roughly 200 tons of radioactive material still inside.
- The Problem: Most of it is located in hard-to-reach sub-basements.
- The Risk: Ground-water contamination.
- The Reality: We don't have a final "trash can" for this stuff yet.
Ukraine is building a centralized spent fuel storage facility (CSFSF) in the Zone, but that’s for fuel from their working reactors. The mess inside Unit 4 is a different beast entirely. It’s mixed with lead, sand, and boron. It’s a chemical nightmare that requires unique chemical processing that doesn't really exist at scale yet.
What happens next?
People ask if it’s safe to visit. Sorta.
The guided tours (before the war and currently limited) are safe if you stick to the paths. The radiation levels on the main road are lower than what you’d get on a cross-country flight. But if you step off the path into a "hot spot" where a piece of the core landed? That’s a different story.
The future of the site is "Green Square." That’s the official goal—to turn the Exclusion Zone into a safe, brownfield industrial site. It’s an optimistic name for a project that will take centuries.
Actionable insights for the curious
If you’re following the status of the reactor, don't rely on "ruin porn" photography. The situation is dynamic.
- Monitor Official IAEA Reports: They provide the most objective data on radiation levels and structural safety.
- Support Organizations like Clean Futures Fund: They provide medical support for the workers and manage the "Dogs of Chernobyl" program, which is a very real part of the Zone's ecosystem.
- Understand the Timeline: Realize that the "cleanup" is not a 10-year project. The NSC buys us 100 years to figure out how to actually get the fuel out.
- Stay Updated on the NSC Cranes: The commencement of the "Deconstruction Phase" will be the next major milestone in human history at the site. This is where we stop hiding the problem and start removing it.
The story of the reactor is no longer about a mistake made in 1986. It’s about the incredible, boring, expensive, and heroic effort to keep that mistake in the past. It’s a silent war against physics. And so far, we’re winning.