Chernobyl tomb nearing completion

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...Chernobyl.html

Burying the horrors of Chernobyl: Extraordinary images of giant steel arch which will shut off radioactive site as countryside remains desolate 27 years on

- Structure set to be completed by 2015 and will protect against another radiation leak
- Workers at the site have an annual radiation allowance and must stop if they exceed it
- The hug arch could encase the Statue Of Liberty and fit a football pitch inside
- It is being built a few hundred yards from reactor, and will be wheeled into place when completed

This is the huge steel arch that will entomb Chernobyl's reactor four, and slash the risk of another radioactive disaster.

The construction, which is one of the biggest engineering projects in history is being built to seal of of nuclear fuel buried inside reactor four which blew up in 1986.

Standing 360 feet tall, and 843 feet wide, the arch will be held together by 680,000 bolts.

Costing £1.5billion to build the feat of engineering is a small price to pay to prevent another disaster like the one which blighted generations in the Ukrainian region.

Radiation from the blast also spread across the former USSR and Europe prompting fears at the the time about the safety of nuclear power stations.

Don Kelly, an American nuclear industry veteran is overseeing the project.

He told the BBC: 'Nothing like this has ever been attempted before.
'For anyone in the nuclear business, this is the place you want to be: the biggest, most exciting project in the world right now.'

Specialists from 24 countries are working on the massive project which reached its halfway point in the autumn.

Ukrainian veterans of the disaster are also advising on the works, which should be completed by 2015.

The reactor at the site was badly damaged in the original explosion and fire, and is too radioactive for the arch to be assembled directly above it.

So the construction is being put together at a safer distance in two parts, and when both are ready they will slide along tracks to be clamped together in the correct position.

The project is being paid for by 40 countries, and all staff working at the site have an annual allowance of how much radiation they can be exposed to.

For some working around the chimney at the site, an entire year's allowance could be used up in just a few hours.

When finished the arch will be big enough to house the Statue Of Liberty, and wide enough to encase a football pitch.

Interesting how fast it's gone up over the past few months.

Have to say it's quite sad that they are going to have to take the chimney down soon, it's really iconic.

Thoughts?

[Rixion]

I know it's the safest thing to do but the reactor as it is really is iconic and is a tourist gold mine... does this mean the rest of the area will be opening up again eventually?

[sexpot]

I know it's the safest thing to do but the reactor as it is really is iconic and is a tourist gold mine... does this mean the rest of the area will be opening up again eventually?

If by eventually you mean several hundred years then yes lol

[xxMATTGxx]

I always find the place interesting and love looking at photos of the different locations.

I know it's the safest thing to do but the reactor as it is really is iconic and is a tourist gold mine... does this mean the rest of the area will be opening up again eventually?

Won't be for a very very long time. I know there is small trips to the area but you can't stay there for that long.

[sexpot]

I always find the place interesting and love looking at photos of the different locations.



Won't be for a very very long time. I know there is small trips to the area but you can't stay there for that long.

Radiation will be in that area for tens of thousands of years, but scientists think that it'll be habitable in around 900 years at the max, 500 to 600 at the minimum
but who knows what science will be like in the future, maybe we'll have invented something to reduce the radiation

[Kardan]

Radiation will be in that area for tens of thousands of years, but scientists think that it'll be habitable in around 900 years at the max, 500 to 600 at the minimum
but who knows what science will be like in the future, maybe we'll have invented something to reduce the radiation

Even then, I doubt they'll open it up freely. I'd say it would be a terrorist target... If something bad happened there it could send up a plume of radioactive material...

[Chippiewill]

If something bad happened there it could send up a plume of radioactive material...

I think the larger concern would be Terrorists gathering radioactive material, making a dirty bomb and detonating it in a populated city. There's a reason why governments keep a close eye on radioactive waste leaving nuclear power stations.

[Kardan]

I think the larger concern would be Terrorists gathering radioactive material, making a dirty bomb and detonating it in a populated city. There's a reason why governments keep a close eye on radioactive waste leaving nuclear power stations.

Yeah, didn't think of that. That would be a lot worse.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I know that tours used to run for the public until recently when they were cancelled for some reason (thats the last I heard) - which is a shame as I really was hoping to go someday, the problem is that nobody I know would like to go with me.

The actual site isn't all that bad, trees and animal have all returned and some people still live there. The big danger is the particles which were thrown out by the explosion which are literally like grains of sand and are incredibly radioactive and dangerous.

[Reality]

Yeah, didn't think of that. That would be a lot worse.

Back on the track to the arch I think like it was mentioned it is a very cheap project for a build to help nuclear disasters, it probably sound so dumb with what I'm about to say; I have never heard of this place ;o unless you pronounce it different to what you say it then I might if!! Anyway, I hope that obviously as mentioned also that it returns to its original state in the future!! Also, the terrorist part I understand but wouldn't it be too far gone even for terrorists to get to after they feel it's ready to open??? Surely they would wait till the half lives of the material are so low they wait it out and then let people return after it's gone or would they extract it themselves and put it elsewhere?!?!