Ukraine crisis halts work on dome over Chernobyl site- Pro-Kremlin vid portrays Ukraine invading Russia- Putin warns …
The first half of the arch has already been completed and sits in a waiting position near reactor four until the second half is finished.SSE Chernobyl NPP photo
The arch will cost over $1.5 billion once completed and will envelope reactor four to replace the crumbling concrete sarcophagus already in place.Reuters
A rendering of what the containment arch at Chernobyl will look like once completed. The project was scheduled to be finished by October 2015 but is now delayed indefinitely.Reuters
A hazard sign indicating radiation is seen in front of a containment shelter for the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
A containment shelter for the damaged fourth reactor (L) and the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure (R) at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are seen from Ukraine's abandoned town of Pripyat.REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Ukraine's political and economic meltdown could spell doom - or at least delay - for a containment dome being built over Chernobyl.
Construction of the coated steel, climate-controlled sarcophagus was begun in 2010 to cover the site of the infamous 1986 meltdown, scene of the worst nuclear accident in history. But finishing the $2.1 billion project requires money and, likely, stability from the Ukraine government and international backers. Planned in sections comprised of two 300-foot-high arches that will span the site and then be walled on the sides, the project will never be completed by the original goal of 2015, officials acknowledge.
- Roksolana Stojko-Lozynskyj, of the Ukranian Congress Committee
And given Ukraine's economic and political crisis, it's anyone's guess when the project, designed to last at least 100 years, will ever be completed. Called the New Safe Confinement Arch project, it is funded by Ukraine and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. But Ukraine is broke, and donor nations may be leery of investing amid political instability.
In our financial analysis we are of course making the working assumption that it will not receive any money from Ukraine in the near term, Vince Novak, director of nuclear safety at the EBRD said in a recent interview with Nuclear Engineering magazine.
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