Chernobyl Cover Construction to Start in April RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED April 02, 2012 Ukraine will begin the construction of a new sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26, the 26th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the country’s president Viktor Yanukovych said. Yanukovych spoke on Tuesday at a nuclear safety conference in Seoul, where he also pledged to share Ukraine's experience after Chernobyl with Japan, which has to deal with the consequences of its own nuclear disaster after a series of failures at the Fukushima power plant last year. The Chernobyl sarcophagus will cost 935 million euro ($1.2 billion) to build. Most of the money was raised through a donation drive among the world’s governments held last year, with Ukraine only contributing 6 percent of the sum. Construction of the confinement chamber, a metal facility 105 meters tall and 260 meters long that will cover the reactor, is to be finished by 2015, Ukrainian officials said earlier. The destroyed reactor was covered by a concrete confinement chamber months after the disaster in 1986 but the facility has since decayed and is threatening to leak radiation. Topics: East Europe, Ukraine Other news: Bulgaria Abandons Belene Nuclear Plant A natural gas power plant will be built on the site instead. Nations to Minimize Weapons-Grade Uranium Use - Communique It also urges tougher measures to keep loose fissile materials out of the wrong hands. Obama Speaks for World without Nuclear Weapons Obama said "serious sustained global effort" was needed to protect the world from the nuclear terrorism risk. |
Hero of the day Iran views of its nuclear issue It is difficult to say what will happen next, especially since the international community is split into two opposing camps on this issue. This article will analyze both of them, also taking into account the situation in Tehran. INTERVIEW
Georgy Toshinsky OPINION
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