France's Novarka Concern, the general constructor of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) at Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP), has lifted the second half of Chornobyl’s NSC to full height, the press service of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has reported.
“Subject to weather conditions the two halves will now be joined before the end of the year,” reads the report.
The EBRD said that the cost of the entire Chornobyl Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP), of which the New Safe Confinement is the most prominent project, is estimated at around 2.15 billion euros based on a thorough and complete analysis of the final approved design of the New Safe Confinement and of the current advanced status of the design and installation of its auxiliary systems.
As reported, the New Safe Confinement will transform Chornobyl reactor four, which was destroyed in the 1986 accident, into an environmentally safe and secure site. The structure has a height of 110 meters, a length of 165 meters, a span of 260 meters and a weight of more than 30,000 tonnes. Its frame is a lattice construction of tubular steel members built on two longitudinal concrete beams. The first half of the arch was completed in April 2014, the second half has now reached its full height. The project is now scheduled to be completed by end-2017.
The Chornobyl Shelter Fund was set up at the EBRD in 1997 following the initiative by the G7, the European Commission and Ukraine to finance the SIP.
