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Europe Gives Ukraine 460 Million Euros To Build Chernobyl Sarcophagus
Kiev (RIA Novosti) Aug 09, 2007 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will grant Ukraine 330 million euros (about $460 mln) to secure the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to prevent radioactive leaks, the emergencies ministry said. Under an agreement the bank signed with the ministry and the state company overseeing the plant on Tuesday, the funds will be allocated to build a giant protective shield over the fourth reactor, damaged in the powerful 1986 explosions, and construct facilities to tackle nuclear waste by 2014-2015. The Assembly of Chernobyl Shelter Fund Donors decided in London on July 17 to give its approval to the contract to build the shelter with France's Novarka, expected to be signed between September 17 and 24. During that time, Ukraine is to sign contracts with U.S.-based Holtec to build radioactive waste storages in the first, second and third power units and complete a solid radioactive waste recycling plant. The decision came after numerous delays since the fund - contributed to by 28 countries, including the G8 nations, and run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - pledged in 2005 to allocate about $200 million for a new vault to contain radioactive material inside the plant. A huge steel vault, which will be made away from the reactor site and will then be slid into place on rails, will seal the plant for 100 years, and further measures are expected to reduce the radiation threat or remove radioactive material from the plant. Much of the radioactive material inside the plant is temporarily contained by a Russian-designed "sarcophagus." The devastating disaster in then Soviet Ukraine killed and affected nine million people, according to UN estimates. Vast areas, mainly in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, were contaminated by the fallout of the explosion. An 18-mile zone, from which about 135,000 people were evacuated after the disaster, remains largely deserted to this day.
earlier related report 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 cnetre 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.
Source: RIA Novosti
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Science, Nuclear Technology Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
The Iran Nuke Industry Row
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 07, 2007A group of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Iran to visit a heavy-water reactor being built near Arak, in the center of the country. This time, the Iranians are ready to give the IAEA exhaustive answers to questions about their experiments with plutonium and their uranium-enrichment program. This is a real breakthrough in Tehran's long-running dispute with the nuclear watchdog. In the middle of July, Iran announced its readiness to resume contacts with the IAEA. Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Hosseini explained, "Our dialogue with the West on this problem has become more realistic and rational." |
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