The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says it faces a €500 million shortfall for emergency repairs to the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine.
It warned that international funding is needed to avert a potential environmental disaster after damage from Russian attacks.
The EBRD is seeking the money to restore the giant steel structure built over the remains of Reactor 4, which exploded in 1986. Damaged by a Russian drone strike in February 2025, the structure — known as the New Safe Confinement — protects the reactor’s remains and allows radioactive material to be managed safely.
“It’s not a Ukrainian problem,” EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso told POLITICO in an interview. “Everybody should feel concerned about nuclear safety globally.”
The EBRD is joint-owned by the European Union, the European Investment Bank and 77 other countries, including the U.S., China and Russia. It was originally set up to fund development in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and is a major funder of nuclear safety.
While there is no immediate danger from Chernobyl, Renaud-Basso said the damage needs to be fixed before 2030. Without repairs, moisture could cause corrosion to the infrastructure beneath the protective arch, eventually making it much more difficult and expensive to manage the radioactive material.
She argued the repairs should not be seen as competing with other urgent demands for support to Ukraine, which is already struggling to repair energy infrastructure damaged by Russia’s invasion. Instead, governments should see it as an investment in international nuclear safety, with consequences extending beyond Ukraine’s borders.
“It’s very much also a question of trust,” she said. “When you see so many countries investing also in nuclear, you need to have the trust that when things happen, if things happen, there is a capacity to deal with them.”
The argument comes as a growing number of European countries consider nuclear energy as part of their future energy mix. Renaud-Basso said the need to maintain strong safety standards and demonstrate that the international community can respond to nuclear accidents remains essential.
POLITICO Damaged Chernobyl nuclear site needs urgent funding, warns European development bank
