25 Years Later, Sealing Off Chernobyl

Chernobyl has been sitting for 25 years, after easily the worst nuclear melt down of a power plant in history.
Fukushima tried to rival the horrible disaster, but luckily was not able to come close.


Yesterday, Tuesday (26 April, 2011) marks the 25th anniversary of the fire and core meltdown at Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor four. Even now, the site requires tremendous care so that the remaining nuclear material does not escape.

Dealing with this disaster is going to involve a lot of work, and effort. But the end result, will be completely worth it.

 The linked Video shows the plans to finally contain and break down what is considered one of the most deadly places on earth.

I thought the above YouTube video was just an idea that was still on the drawing board.
Turns out that this is actually under construction as we speak.

Attached are some of the pictures from Chernobyl:

The reinforced-concrete foundation for this structure, called the New Safe Confinement, is visible in the foreground of this photo. The gravel trench on the right is part of the track that will be used to slide the tremendous structure over the sarcophagus.

Before building the new structures, engineers are clearing the site of contaminated debris like this metal. Highly radioactive equipment and construction waste buried during previous work is being unearthed, and all the sand and gravel used to make the new structures has been brought in from outside. In the background of this photo is the sarcophagus.

Workers pour concrete for the foundations for the towers that will lift the 20,000-ton New Safe Confinement structure into place.

Workers at the site wear protective clothing, masks that filter out potentially radioactive particles, and dosimeters that monitor their daily exposure to radiation.

These 25-meter-long pipes will be hammered into the ground to reinforce the foundation of the New Safe Confinement structure. In the background, a truck carrying gravel is preceded by another that wets the road to keep the dust down. The ground still contains radioactive particles.

Before leaving the site, construction vehicles are steam-cleaned to prevent them from carrying out any radioactive dust.

A worker welds rebar for the New Safe Confinement foundations.

 

A highly sensitive particulate air sampler monitors the construction site’s overall radiation levels. A worker on the site says that ten days after the disaster at Fukushima, this device picked up wind-borne radioactive dust from Japan.

A critical step in making Chernobyl safer is to decommission the other three reactors on the site. Spent fuel from reactors one, two, and three will be stored in these concrete containers, part of a structure called Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility 2.

Here is to hoping for a very safe, and successful completion to this project.

All credit for pictures: Volodymyr Shuvayev
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