Posted on 08/08/2007 2:38:56 AM PDT by Republicain
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is pledging hundreds of millions to Ukraine in order to build a new sarcophagus to encase the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The current cement and concrete shell has deteriorated to dangerous levels.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has pledged $507 million to Ukraine to help it build a new protective shell over the nuclear reactor that exploded in 1986. The cover currently in place, erected shortly after the world's worst nuclear accident, is now crumbling. The money will go toward the construction of a more secure and permanent shelter to encompass the existing "sarcophagus," a massive concrete and steel structure which was hastily erected to contain the radiation. Over the years, it has begun to deteriorate and is now in poor condition, creating a potentially hazardous situation. If it collapses, another cloud of radioactive dust could be released.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
KIEV, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - French consortium Novarka has won the tender to build a new sarcophagus around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
Emergency Situations Minister Nestor Shufrych said in a statement that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had picked the consortium to build the sarcophagus around the plant's fourth reactor.
The Novarka consortium includes the French building companies Bouygues and Vinci as well as German and Ukrainian firms, according to sources close to the deal.
Novarka put in a tender to do the work for 490 million euros (675 million dollars), said Ria Novosti news agency.
The Ukrainian emergency minstry said the contract would be signed by September 24, and that at the same period the US company Holtec International would sign a deal to build a new centre to store nuclear fuel at Chernobyl.
The EBRD will donate 330 million euros to the programme: to build a new sarcophagus around the Chernobyl reactor for the two projects; and for a centre to treat nuclear waste, the ministry said.
The work will be finished by 2015, said Ria-Novosti.
On April 26, 1986 reactor number 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating large parts of Europe but especially the then-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Now, a huge concrete shield and small army of workers are all that stand between the deadly reactor and the outside world.
The sarcophagus stands over the ruins of the reactor and radioactive fuel in the heart of the 30-kilometre-radius (18.6-mile) exclusion zone. The grey concrete buildings of the power plant emerge from a pine birch forest near the Pripyat river.
More than 25,000 of the so-called liquidators who worked to clean up the site and construct the sarcophagus have since died, according to unofficial estimates.
Chernobyl's last functioning reactor was shut down in December 2000. The 3,500 people still working there for the most part concentrate on maintaining the sarcophagus that was erected in the immediate aftermath of the accident to confine the radioactive leaks.
Over the years they have installed huge steel girders and propped up the sarcophagus's foundations and outer walls.
The planned new construction will be 190 metres (623 feet) wide and 200 metres (656 feet) long. In the shape of a half-cylinder it will literally slide over the existing sarcophagus. The steel structure will weigh some 18,000 tons -- more than twice the Eiffel tower.
I toss in an extra $20 if they’ll put Al Gore inside before they seal ‘er up.
Not a good thing if the radioactive material gets into the river.
Damn Russians build junk.
“I toss in an extra $20 if they’ll put Al Gore inside before they seal ‘er up.”
I’ll chip in another $20.
sw
For two years I lived in a house with two Turks.
You don't know the meaning of "gruelling" until you've listened to two Turks go on about shoddy Russian craftsmanship for two years.
Certainly this is just a fraction of the final cost to build an effective sarcophagus around Madonna’s crotch.
Heh. She’s a shadow of her former self much like Chernobyl.
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