Work to remove fuel from the destroyed fourth nuclear reactor at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant will begin no earlier than in 30 years, First Deputy Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine for the Management of the Exclusion Zone at the Emergencies Ministry Dmytro Bobro has said.
"Today, immediately after the creation of a new safe containment structure, first and foremost, it will be necessary to disassemble the unstable building structures. This is the work that will be conducted in about ten years… As for the further treatment of fuel containing materials, their removal and burial… such a storage facility is to be created in about 30 years," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on April 24.
Bobro said that over this time it would be necessary to create special robots with which it will be possible to reach fuel-containing masses.
In addition, he said that further work would be carried out for around 60 years.
"Based on these approaches to the new safe containment structure, it will be required to operate for 100 years," he said.
Work to install the arch of the new containment structure over the fourth reactor at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant will begin on April 26. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is expected to attend the ceremony marking the beginning of the work.
