Temporary Cover to be Built over Collapsed Chernobyl Roof

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED March 02, 2013

A temporary cover will be built above the collapsed section of Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant, the chief engineer said late on Friday.

Wall panels and parts of the roof caved in on February 12 in the turbine hall at the plant's Reactor Number Four, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The damaged area covered about 600 square meters (6,456 square feet).

Chernobyl NPP technical director and chief engineer Andrei Bilyk said the temporary cover was recommended by experts who visited the plant last week, and that the station’s management saw it as “the first thing that has to be done.”

“Our specialists, including the technical service, are currently studying technical options of how to close this hole with a temporary cover. We have the technology, have the equipment, we are able to do it,” Bilyk said.

He said works are due to be over by the end of May.

Two expert commissions said in a report on Tuesday that there was no danger to humans or the environment and that the collapse did not affect the safety of the damaged reactor’s cover. Radiation levels have been within the normal range.

The chief engineer described the structure’s current condition as “stable.”

“We came to a conclusion that there will be no further collapses. We expect no domino effect,” Bilyk said.

Topics: Safety, East Europe, Ukraine

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