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Chernobyl shelter design nears completion

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Technical concept for the new safe confinement.

Dr Blix with Vince Novak.

Blix chairs donor meeting at EBRD HQ.

Seventeen years after an explosion ripped through reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, design of a new confinement shelter to protect the world from the plant's radioactive material is nearing completion.

A tender for construction of the new shelter, perhaps the largest moveable structure ever to be built, may be issued later this year says Vince Novak, director of EBRD's Nuclear Safety Department. His team manages the Chernobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) which finances the Shelter Implementation Plan, whose cost is estimated at $768 million. The latest meeting of the CSF Assembly of Contributors was held at the Bank in early April. The CSF Chair is Hans Blix, the UN's chief inspector in the recent search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The 1986 Chernobyl accident was the world's worst disaster in the civil use of nuclear energy. It immediately affected workers, firefighters and soldiers who had to secure the site. More than 135,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. The 30-km 'exclusion' zone around the plant will remain uninhabitable for decades.

In 1997 the international community entrusted the EBRD with managing the Chernobyl Shelter Fund. The G7 countries, the European Union, Ukraine and other countries have so far pledged approximately € 720 million to the fund. The CSF finances a comprehensive programme to deal with the long-term dangers posed by Chernobyl. Along with constructing the new containment shelter, the programme includes stabilising the existing shelter and providing a integrated monitoring system to report on radiation, structural stability and seismic events, among other things.

Contains reactor

Within the next four to five years reactor 4 will be encased in a 20,000-ton steel shelter. It will contain an earlier and now unstable 'sarcophagus' constructed hastily by the Soviets to confine radioactive material after the '86 explosion. The Soviet structure sufficed in the short term, but time and severe weather conditions weakened it. The new, stable and environmentally safe structure will contain the remains of the reactor for at least 100 years, during which time an even longer-lasting solution to the Chernobyl problem must be found.

Using money from the Chernobyl fund the new confinement structure is being designed by an international consortium from the West and Ukraine. The design phase is expected to wind up this summer. The structure will consist of a 100-meter- high steel arch with a span of about 250 meters. It will slide along rails into place over the Soviet sarcophagus.

Housing Chernobyl "is a big challenge", said Mr Novak. "This is primarily because of the radiation involved. If it wasn't for that, the job would be relatively easy." Another issue is the sheer size of the shell which will be big enough to house London's St Paul's Cathedral. Nothing like this has ever been done in the past, but "it's do-able", said Matthew Wrona, project manager at Bechtel International Systems, one of the companies working on the design.

Other concerns relate to finance and red tape.

Costs are high

Chernobyl has been costly for Ukraine: for its people, for its environment, and for the government. As recently as 2000, the Ukrainians were said to be spending up to five per cent of their gross domestic product on mitigation of the social, health and environmental consequences of the accident.

Dr Blix understands the challenges facing Ukraine: "This country is moving away from the communist to the free-market system. That is not an easy operation at all and the climate - both political and administrative - is complex," he said in an interview after the CSF meeting.

Ukrainian red tape has slowed progress. "There has been a lot of frustration in trying to meet the demands of the international community," said Dr Blix. But progress is being made; the Ukrainians are now speeding up procedures and they must build on this momentum, said Mr Novak.

Many delegates attending the CSF's Assembly of Contributors meeting at EBRD headquarters last week were encouraged by the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich. He confirmed Ukraine's commitment to turning the shelter into an ecologically safe system.

Prime Minister speaks

"The Ukrainian government is geared towards the effective and well-coordinated implementation of the international programmes of creating an ecologically safe system within the framework of the Shelter Fund," Prime Minister Yanukovich told the donor community.

Ukraine is gaining praise from the donor community. Jean-Pierre Landau, EBRD's French Director, was speaking on behalf of the G7 when he thanked Mr Yanukovich for Ukraine's commitment to dealing with the Chernobyl accident. He went on to urge "genuine, sustained support by the Government of Ukraine".

Chernobyl is a global responsibility. The international community knows "Ukraine can't do this alone," said Mr Novak. But the fund's resources are limited. Dr Blix said the donor community stands united in ensuring the success of the new shelter project. "The Fund is in good shape," Dr Blix told his colleagues at the CSF meeting. "But its resources are limited, and therefore it is vital we finish on time."

15 April 2003