“What can never be forgotten is that the destruction caused by the deadly explosion at Reactor Number 4 at Chernobyl was triggered by the release of just 3 percent of the radioactive material in the plant, the remaining 97 percent of this enormous ticking time bomb of highly unstable nuclear material is still inside the crumbling Chernobyl complex,” Adi Roche said.
- Work on the contamination shield, the largest of its kind in the world, was due to be completed by October 2015 but the turbulent political situation in Ukraine has cast doubt on the project’s progress.
Roche said that the work could be delayed by up to two years, adding that it is essential the international community understand the risks posed by the delay.
“Chernobyl is the old Soviet Union’s deadly legacy to Ukraine, and the world has very real reasons to be extremely concerned about the ongoing threat it poses, especially at a time of great instability and growing hostility between Ukraine and Russia,” Roche said.
An explosion at one of the power plant's nuclear reactors in 1986 led to the worst nuclear disaster in world history, affecting the lives of millions of people. Vast areas, mainly in the three Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, were contaminated by the fallout from the critical nuclear meltdown, with some 200,000 people relocated following the accident.
Workers built a temporary shield over the damaged reactor soon after the disaster, called a sarcophagus. In 2010, work on the new shied started. The primary aim of the project, estimated to cost nearly €1.5 billion, is to prevent further leakage at the crippled reactor.
[RIA Novosti]
23/4/14
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Related:
Baustopp für Tschernobyl-Schutzhülle droht...
ReplyDeleteInsgesamt fehlen 615 Mio. Euro für den Weiterbau - Deutschland kommt dabei eine Schlüsselrolle zu.
Ohne finanzielle Hilfe Deutschlands und der anderen G-7-Staaten droht ein Baustopp bei der dringend benötigten neuen Schutzhülle für den zerstörten Atomreaktor in Tschernobyl. Es bestehe ein Finanzierungsdefizit von 615 Millionen Euro, erfuhr die Deutsche Presse-Agentur aus Regierungskreisen.
1997 hatten die sieben führenden westlichen Industriestaaten (G-7) den Aufbau eines Fonds vereinbart, um einen Sarkophag für den 1986 zerstörten Reaktorblock 4 zu finanzieren. Da der bisherige Betonschutz brüchig ist, wird zum dauerhaften Schutz vor hoch radioaktiver Strahlung eine riesige neue Stahlhülle gebaut, die etwa zur Hälfte fertig ist. Aber die bisher zur Verfügung gestellten Mittel werden Ende 2014 aufgebraucht sein................http://kurier.at/politik/weltchronik/baustopp-fuer-tschernobyl-schutzhuelle-droht/85.974.611
16/9/14