With funding from Western Europe, and technical help from the French, the Chernobyl site will finally be getting a steel shield over its crumbling concrete casing, designed to last at least a century.
Seems to me this should have been done a long time ago, but better late than never, right?
Living close enough to be nervous these days (if you ask me, the whole continent is close enough to be nervous), I can't see this as anything but good news. But the details of what's left over after the world's worst-ever radioactive accident are still daunting.
According to the BBC, the reactor still contains 95 percent of its fissionable material, currently under a concrete shell that was thrown together after the accident, and which has now been weakened by weather and age.
Greenpeace France had this encouraging review of the new containment plans, according to news service AFP:
Sounds fine, then! In any case, "sarcophagus" is a fabulously symbolic term for the casing they've provided, and are now updating. French contractors are planning a $600 million, 623
foot by 656 foot steel covering for the old reactor, designed to last 100
years. And yes, that doesn't seem like long enough to me either – but
Ukrainian politicians say that by that time, the facility should be entirely dismantled, and no longer a danger. Here's hoping...
Funding will come through the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, which is managing donations from a variety of sources, the
BBC reported.
Chernobyl to be covered in steel [BBC]
(Photo: Outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Credit: Stuck in Customs (see also this photographer's extensive blog entry with excellent photos, detailing a trip through the site.)
