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Costly Chernobyl cleanup continues

Toxic debt – The Engineer 26 Oct 09 “……………..While the legacy of the Soviet Union’s military might continues to present challenges, it is Chernobyl, a civilian nuclear reactor, which remains the most terrifying symbol of the era.
And with the hastily constructed concrete sarcophagus that contains the destroyed reactor now more than 20 years old, plans to build an immense, hermetically sealed arch over the site are finally coming to fruition.Not a moment too soon, says Lindauer, who, despite numerous efforts to strengthen the existing sarcophagus, remains worried about its stability. ‘In 1986 they hadn’t undergone any seismic qualification of the structure.

The construction was done without any documentation and it is not clear what kind of events it could withstand.’ A collapse of the roof would, he said, scatter the contaminated dust within across the entire exclusion zone and scupper any plans to clean up Chernobyl.The contract for the design and construction of this shield — known as the new safe confinement — has been awarded to Novarka, a consortium headed up by French civil engineering firm Vinci, which is finalising the design. Lindauer expects the complete structure — a 20,000 tonne, 105m-high arch — to be installed over the reactor as soon as 2012.
To protect workers from the radiation levels around the sarcophagus that can burn them within 15 minutes the plan is to assemble the shield to the west of the main site in an area sheltered from the worst of the radiation and then slide it into position along specially constructed rails. The cost of constructing the shelter has been estimated at around $1.6bn (£965m), although with so much still unknown about the site, Lindauer said that it is impossible to put an exact price on it.

Toxic debt – The Engineer

October 27, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, Russia, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive