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Race Against Time to Build a New Tomb for Chernobyl

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Ashley Washington
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« on: December 29, 2012, 03:54:39 am »


Pictures: Race Against Time to Build a New Tomb for Chernobyl



Picture of visitors at Chernobyl shelter construction site
Steel Skeleton at a Deathly Site

Photograph by Sergey Dolzhenko, European Pressphoto Agency

Visitors gaze overhead at the steel lattice that will underpin the new protective shelter at Chernobyl, site of the worst nuclear accident in history. The so-called New Safe Confinement, designed to seal the destroyed reactor and contain the radioactive material inside, is the latest step in a more than 26-year cleanup at the desolate plant site in Ukraine. (Related Quiz: "What Do You Know About Nuclear Power?")

On April 26, 1986, an explosion in one of the plant's reactors spewed large amounts of radioactive material over Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. The immediate area was evacuated, but the cloud that rose from the burning reactor spread iodine and radionuclides over much of Europe. Some 30 workers were killed immediately, and as many as 4,000 people are expected to die eventually as a result of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl plant, by the World Health Organization's reckoning. Some estimates of the excess cancer toll are far higher. Immediately following the accident, workers braved dangerous conditions to build a steel and concrete structure to contain the uranium, plutonium, and other radioactive materials at the ruined plant. Known as the "sarcophagus," the structure was never meant to be a permanent solution. It is supported by faulty beams and has developed cracks, causing experts to worry it could collapse and once again allow radioactive material to escape.

A plan for a more permanent protective solution, developed more than 15 years ago by European and Western experts, finally is being put into action. The $2 billion (1.6 billion Euro) effort, funded by more than two dozen nations and the European Union, is "an unparalleled project in the history of engineering," says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the project administrator.

After shoring up the sarcophagus, workers raised the first section of the new structure’s arched roof, seen here in November. The new shelter will eventually cover the damaged reactor. The mammoth structure, which is slated for completion in 2015, will weigh 29,000 tons and stand tall enough to house the Statue of Liberty.

—Joe Eaton


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/12/pictures/121227-new-tomb-for-chernobyl/
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Ashley Washington
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« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2012, 03:55:53 am »



Beneath the Arch

Photograph by Sergey Dolzhenko, European Pressphoto Agency

A cherry picker lifts workers to the underside of the massive new steel arch designed to cover Chernobyl.

When completed, the structure will be slid about 980 feet (300 meters) on tracks into place over the damaged reactor building and sealed. It will stand more than 344 feet (105 meters) tall, and will span 843 feet (257 meters).

Vince Novak, head of nuclear safety at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is leading the project, said the structure is being built away from the damaged reactor both to increase construction speed and for worker safety. "Radiation levels (in the construction zone) are sufficiently low that they can work there for an unlimited amount of time without specialized protective gear," Novak said.

In the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl, the Soviet Union dispatched thousands of workers to the site; the so-called "liquidators" sustained massive doses of radiation in the effort to secure the site. (Related: "Pictures: ‘Liquidators’ Endured Chernobyl 25 Years Ago") A 1,100-square-mile (2,850-square-kilometer) area around Chernobyl, the exclusion zone, remains closed to most people and agriculture. (Related: "Pictures: Animals Inherit Mixed Legacy at Chernobyl")

Published December 27, 2012
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Ashley Washington
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« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2012, 03:56:58 am »




Testing the Design

Photograph by Efrem Lukatsky, AP

Construction workers assemble the arched roof of the new shelter. Fund-raising for the project began in 1997. The money pledged by donor nations is sufficient to complete the project, European Bank officials say. With high construction costs, Novak said, the team cannot afford delays. Yet much work remains to be done. Novak called the successful completion of the first section in November an important test of the design. "It demonstrated many things that one should not take for granted," he said, including that computer modeling performed in Italy translated to on-the-ground workability. "Everything fit together perfectly."

Published December 27, 2012
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Ashley Washington
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« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2012, 03:58:18 am »



Shoring Up the Ruins

Photograph by Sergey Dolzhenko, European Pressphoto Agency

It looks like a typical unfinished construction site, ringed by dirt, with scaffolding against a wall. But the job of entombing Chernobyl is unlike any other.

The external structure that looks like scaffolding supports a damaged wall at the one-time power plant. Before beginning assembly of the New Safe Confinement, workers had to shore up the building to reduce the risk of collapse. The team faces a number of challenges before the new cover can be moved into place and sealed. One of the most difficult, Novak said, is removing the ventilation stack that towers over Chernobyl. The stack must first be stabilized before it can be disassembled section by section, fragmented, tested for radiation, and removed.

Published December 27, 2012

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/12/pictures/121227-new-tomb-for-chernobyl/#/energy-new-sarcophagus-chernobyl-apartments_62695_600x450.jpg
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Ashley Washington
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« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2012, 04:00:15 am »



The Ghost Town of Pripyat

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

The high rises of Pripyat have a view of Chernobyl, but no one lives behind their darkened windows.

The town, which was built to house power-plant and construction staff, once held around 50,000 people, all of whom were permanently evacuated after the accident. In total, more than 330,000 people were forced to abandon their homes in the region surrounding Chernobyl.

"As you drive through the exclusion zone, you see village after village that have been decaying for over 25 years," said Ron Chesser, a professor of behavioral ecology at Texas Tech University who was the first American allowed into the zone in 1992. "It's pretty sobering to go through a place where people used to live."

Published December 27, 2012
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