The first sarcophagus, the "Shelter" object, was erected over the fourth block destroyed by the explosion of the reactor at the cost of life and health of 90 thousand workers in record time - 206 days from the moment of the accident and was put into operation in November 1986. This was done to prevent the spread of radioactive elements around the world. Indeed, according to scientists, 80% of the radioactive elements of the total amount contained in the reactor still remain under the sarcophagus.
The Chernobyl sarcophagus is designed for 30 years
The Shelter object was originally supposed to be only a temporary solution to the problem of the spread of radioactive substances - its service life was calculated for 30 years.
But what is the Chernobyl Sarcophagus hiding inside
Under the sarcophagus there are many rooms and rooms. Some of them were created after the accident to maintain the sarcophagus and carry out all kinds of measurements and research - as a rule, they are separated from the destroyed reactor hall by thick concrete walls through which radiation does not penetrate. The other part of the rooms is the former premises of the Fourth Power Unit. I managed to get into some of them only in the early nineties, I came across descriptions of these premises - “rickety ceilings, traces of soot on the walls, furniture moved from the explosion, a thick layer of dust on all objects, the radiation background is about 2 roentgens per hour.” And it has not yet been possible to get into the third rooms (especially those rooms that are under the reactor hall), what is happening there now - no one knows.
Reactor hall of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:
And the reactor hall itself looks something like this. The photo shows the concrete cover of the reactor, which was thrown up by an explosion in 1986, and it fell back in this position. The tubes protruding from the lid are the so-called fuel assemblies, and the cone-shaped elements on top are monitors for monitoring radiation levels.
Dosimetrists under the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:
Dosimetrist Alexander Kupny and his colleagues have repeatedly descended under the rubble of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Radiation levels are high there. Protective suits and masks are required. It is impossible to stay in the sarcophagus for a long time. This can bring great harm to health. But in any case, you need to check the status of the Shelter.
Fuel masses under the Chernobyl Sarcophagus
After the accident, about 80% of the fuel masses remained under the Shelter, which have a high radioactive background. In 1986, all this was poured with concrete and lead. So everything has remained to this day.
In November 2016, an event occurred at the shutdown Chernobyl nuclear power plant, described by almost all the media in the world. A hundred-meter arch was erected over the concrete sarcophagus, under which the 4th power unit destroyed by the explosion has been resting since 1986. It protects the sarcophagus from rain, snow and wind and should allow in the future to deploy work on the dismantling of the destroyed power unit. It would seem that the goal was achieved. But a year and a half later, the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine (SINR) reported that the new protection had not yet been put into operation. Is it dangerous for the health and life of people, and when will the project, for which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development allocated 2.1 billion euros, finally be completed?
What means" commissioning"security arches?
It is allowed to work from 10 to 30 minutes in the hazardous areas of the Shelter object. In some places, you can work up to an hour, SINR engineers say. Today, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a control level of the annual dose of up to 14 millisieverts (mSv) has been established. Of these, 13 mSv is external exposure, and 1 mSv is internal exposure.
“In some cases,” explains Natalia Rybalka, “Ukrainian legislation allows an increase in permissible exposure levels to be agreed with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Some of the personnel at the facility now receive individually permissible doses of up to 30-35 mSv per year.”
"With increased radiation, it is necessary to change workers more often," states Irina Golovko. According to her, at the beginning of this year, there were not enough personnel to complete the work on the protective arch, and therefore the deadlines for putting the facility into operation were again postponed. In March, at a meeting of the public council at the State Inspectorate of the State Nuclear Regulatory Commission of Ukraine, it was announced that the general contractor for the works, JV Novarka, had begun additional mobilization of personnel.
Nevertheless, Tamara Sushko admits that it will not be possible to put the arch into operation at the scheduled time. "The delivery was planned for the end of May. But the issue of completing the project in September or even by the end of this year is being considered as a matter of course," says the engineer.
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Exclusion Zone
After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it became necessary to control the territories that were subjected to the greatest radioactive contamination - these are the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. The 30-kilometer zone around the station was closed to free access. Today, an enterprise for the management of the exclusion zone is located in Chernobyl, and up to 2,800 employees of enterprises building an arch for the sarcophagus also live there.
Secret object "Duga-1"
The secret object "Duga-1" is a Soviet-era radar station designed to detect launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. "Duga-1" never fully took up combat duty. The size of the structure of many antennas is 700 m in length and 150 m in height. After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the facility was mothballed, later its main elements were dismantled and taken away.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
In the 1970s, the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Ukraine began in the Chernobyl region. Chernobyl is located 3 km from the city of Pripyat and 18 km from the city of Chernobyl. It produced a tenth of the electricity in the Ukrainian SSR. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was completely stopped only at the end of 2000. Currently, work continues on the construction of a new insulating structure above the fourth power unit.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
Chernobyl - the administrative center of the exclusion zone
Before the accident, 12.5 thousand people lived in Chernobyl, all of them were evacuated a few days after the tragedy. At the moment, the city is included in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone, being its administrative center. The personnel of the enterprises located here live in abandoned apartment buildings. When crossing the boundaries of the exclusion zone, everyone is required to undergo dosimetric control.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
Arch - a new shelter for the sarcophagus
More than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident. Their main task was the construction of a concrete sarcophagus for the 4th power unit. Under the influence of external factors and radiation, the old shelter began to collapse, which is dangerous - about 200 tons of radioactive substances are still stored there. The new arched structure should cover the sarcophagus and allow its partial dismantling to begin.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
"Samosely" in the exclusion zone
Until now, the concentration of radionuclides in the exclusion zone is high, which does not allow lifting restrictions on living there. However, soon after the accident and evacuation, local residents began to return to their homes under various pretexts. These people were called "self-settlers". To date, there are about 180 of them in the zone: 80 in Chernobyl and about 100 more in villages located within a 30-kilometer zone.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
Grocery store twice a month
Mostly "self-settlers" are elderly people. They now live in four villages of the 30-kilometer exclusion zone. "Samosely" grow vegetables and fruits, pick mushrooms in the forest and drink water from wells. Of the benefits of civilization, they have only electricity. A grocery truck with bread and cereals comes twice a month, and once a month the postman delivers pensions.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
"Death Bucket"
The so-called "death bucket" is one of the current attractions of the city of Pripyat. The bucket was used during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident directly at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Radiation from the ladle (even a few meters from it) exceeds the norm by ten thousand times. It is forbidden to touch him.
Dead ground
Pripyat was to become the most beautiful, exemplary city of Soviet Ukraine. But it went down in history as a city-monument of the worst nuclear disaster in the world. At the moment, in Pripyat there is only a special laundry, a water fluoridation and iron removal station and a garage for Chernobyl special equipment. Not a single person lives in the city.
Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy
Extreme tourism zone
Every year, the exclusion zone is visited by several thousand extreme tourists. Before the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, citizens of Russia were in the lead among foreign tourists. Today, most of the guests are from Poland, the Czech Republic and the USA.
The consortium of French construction companies "Novarka" on Tuesday, November 29, completed the process of installing a new safe confinement (NSC) - an arch-sarcophagus that should protect the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, destroyed during the disaster in 1986. According to Interfax, according to the project, the service life of this facility is designed for 100 years and cost 1.5 billion euros.
"We welcome the completion of this phase of the Chernobyl transformation as a symbol of what we are able to achieve together through strong, determined and long-term efforts. We applaud our Ukrainian partners and contractor, and also thank all donors to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, whose contributions made today's success possible This spirit of cooperation gives us confidence that the project will be completed on time and within budget in one year,” President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti said at the ceremony, quoted by RIA Novosti.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was also not left out of work, saying that the "Russian threat" was worse than the Chernobyl disaster. "No one could have imagined that the Chernobyl test would not be the worst and not the most terrible that Ukraine would have to endure. And that Ukraine is building an arch and a safe confinement in a war, when it is defending itself from Russian aggression," Poroshenko said.
The construction of the new sarcophagus is financed by a special fund managed by the EBRD on behalf of international donors, the largest of which is the European Union, which has allocated 750 million euros to Chernobyl projects so far.
The ceremony was attended today by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of the European Commission for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic, EC Member for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, EC Member for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica and EC Member for Climate and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete.
It is reported that all NSC systems are planned to be tested until November 2017, after which the arch will be put into operation. Next, Ukraine will have to dismantle unstable structures and extract fuel-containing materials in order to turn the nuclear plant into an environmentally friendly facility.
However, already today the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Nezalezhnoy Ostap Semerak, told reporters that Kyiv would ask international partners to assist in dismantling the damaged power unit. “I would like to say that we expect technical support, scientific support, technical support in dismantling the fourth power unit,” he said, noting that it would be difficult for Ukraine to cope with such a task on its own.
In the fall of 2015, Bouygues and Vinci, members of the consortium, completed the preliminary assembly of the arched sarcophagus, then it was dismantled and delivered to the station, where it was reassembled in a clean area near the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and, using a special system, "pushed" onto the object.
According to Bouygues, the arch is larger than the Stade de France in Paris, weighing five times that of the Eiffel Tower. The height of the new sarcophagus reaches the level of a 30-story building - 110 m, the length of the structure is 165 m, and the weight is 36.2 thousand tons.
The body of the arch will be covered with a special sheathing, which will protect the old sarcophagus from external influences and serve as protection for the environment and the population. The building will also be equipped with a high-tech ventilation system and a temperature and humidity control system.
Recall that on April 26, 1986, the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. During the first three months after the accident, about 30 people died. Nearly 8.4 million residents of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to radioactive irradiation. Around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the so-called 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created, from which two cities - Pripyat and Chernobyl, as well as 74 villages were completely evacuated.
The first sarcophagus ("Shelter") over the emergency power unit was erected shortly after the explosion, but in recent years the structure has begun to collapse.
In Ukraine, work has been completed on the construction of a new protective structure over the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On November 29, the parts of the arch of the new Shelter object were connected, the Chernobyl website reports.
Due to the large size of the arch, it had to be built in two parts. The arch was installed using a special system, which consists of 224 hydraulic jacks and allows you to move the structure at a distance of 60 cm in one cycle. In mid-November, specialists began moving the arches towards each other - at a distance of 300 meters.
The protective structure - the "new safe confinement" - should isolate the building of the emergency power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which suffered in 1986 as a result of the largest disaster in the history of nuclear energy.
The new protective arch is 110 meters high, 150 meters long, 260 meters wide, and weighs over 31,000 tons. It is the largest mobile structure in history.
The process of installing the arch in November 2016. Video: EBRD
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It was decided to mount the arched structure at the Chernobyl site at a distance from the Shelter so as not to expose workers to radiation, and then push it onto the structures of the emergency power unit. More than a thousand people work at the construction site in two shifts.
The new sarcophagus will not be the final solution to the problem - it just needs to protect the emergency unit for at least another hundred years. The old Shelter object is over thirty years old, it was erected shortly after the catastrophe at the station on April 26, 1986. The service life of this object ended ten years ago, and after that its old structures were repeatedly strengthened. After the construction of the arch from the first "Shelter" it is planned to extract radioactive materials and "transfer them to a controlled state", that is, to ensure safe storage. It is planned to finally clean up the remains of the fourth power unit and the territory of the station from radioactive contamination by 2065.
The cost of the new "Shelter" project, of which the construction of the sarcophagus is an integral part, exceeds 2 billion euros. The money was provided by more than 40 countries, as well as the European Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
