When Chernobyl's Number Four reactor blew up in April 1986, spewing radioactive fallout across Belarus, workers quickly slapped a giant concrete sarcophagus over the site to contain the hazard. It was supposed to be a temporary fix. Two decades later, the Ukrainian government is finally planning something more permanent. The French construction consortium Novarka has designed an arch-shaped steel shelter -- 843 feet wide, 30 stories high, and weighing almost as much as two Eiffel Towers -- to be assembled next to the reactor. The structure will be rolled into place on concrete tracks, straddling part of the adjacent building and enclosing the reactor. Set for completion in 2012, the so-called New Safe Confinement can't come soon enough: According to a government spokesperson, the shelter will seal off "the lava-like formations that are destroying the current sarcophagus and creating radioactive dust." And it could finally allow for demolition of the old concrete tomb and reactor. Sounds like a blast.
Infographic: Kevin Hand
