The government is in a race against time to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to construct a new shield over Chornobyl nuclear power plant, as experts warn that the current sarcophagus is decaying and could even collapse.
One former director of the power plant suggested the collapse of the concrete sarcophagus, hastily thrown up after the 1986 accident, might release a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine and neighboring countries.
Other experts, including the head of the project to build the new shelter, said this was unlikely, but stressed that 600 million euros needed to be found to cover a gap in funding on the ongoing project, which is aimed at making the site safe once and for all.
The government is relying on foreign donors to cover the cash shortfall, and has called a conference of international donors for April, the 25th anniversary of the disaster. Serhiy Lyovochkin, chief of staff to President Viktor Yanukovych, said the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan should act as a wake-up call on the need for a new shield.
“The tragedy in Japan reinforces the importance and urgency to build a new shelter in Chernobyl,” he said last week.
The sarcophagus was built in the months following the nuclear accident – still the world’s worst – to cover the plant’s stricken fourth reactor, which still contains nuclear material. It was constructed at a distance by cranes, and the concrete blocks could not be sealed together because of the high level of radiation. The structure was originally planned to last 30 years, but in recent years it has decayed more rapidly than expected. Despite recent reinforcement, there are gaps in the structure allowing radioactive dust out and rainwater in.
An agreement between the G7 group of the world’s most developed nations, the European Union and Ukraine in 1997 led to the Shelter Implementation Plan to build a new shield and established a fund, run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 2007, a French-Italian consortium, Novarka, was brought in to design and construct the new shelter.
The new massive building – around the size of two football fields and the height of the Statue of Liberty – will be assembled alongside the reactor and slid into place over the old structure. The construction area has been cleared and work on the foundations is underway.
Critics have raised concerns about how long the plan is taking to be implemented and ever-rising costs, which are now forecast at around 1.5 billion euros. But donors and experts have noted that this is the first time such a structure has been built, and it’s important to get it right.
“It’s not so easy to design a unique, first-time project,” said Ludwig Lytvynsky, director of engineering center for control and emergency systems at the Ministry of Fuel and Energy. “It takes time to calculate its safety and design this kind of a project, given that Ukraine chose a contractor some two years ago.”
“We are of course aware of the fact that the project has not been proceeding according to original plans and that the costs have proved to be higher than expected,” said Christer Michelsson, ambassador of Finland in Ukraine.“However,the project is unique in its nature and it can be expected that there will be delays and other problems. Of course as a donor we expect that the project will be successful because the project is of highest importance not only for Ukraine but also for the whole region.” Finland has already committed 4.9 million euros to the fund.
Donations to the fund have flooded in – mainly from the European Union, the bloc’s member states and the United States. But there’s still a financing gap of some 600 million euros, which is why the donor conference has been called by Yanukovych.
Officials and donors are confident the money will be pledged, particularly after the crisis in Japan reminded people of the painful legacies of nuclear accidents.
Mykhailo Umanets, who directed the Chernobyl nuclear plant from 1987 to 1992, said the shield needs to be built as soon as possible.
“I don’t want to scare anyone here, but if we don’t start building it now we’ll end up with having a huge radioactive dust cloud released from the sarcophagus. This cloud will contain long-living isotopes that the Japanese [Fukushima plant] didn’t have. And then the wind will blow it all over the place,” he said.
The aim of the shelter is not only to prevent this happening, but also to solve the problem of the reactor. Cranes will be built inside the structure that will then be used to take apart the old sarcophagus and reactor remotely, promising to finally make the site safe, if still contaminated and unfit for habitation.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olesia Oleshko can be reached at [email protected]
