This Massive Steel Structure Will Entomb Chernobyl's Reactor 4

[bananas]

http://gizmodo.com/this-massive-steel-arch-will-entomb-chernobyls-reactor-1472661393

This Massive Steel Structure Will Entomb Chernobyl's Reactor 4



When an unexpected power surge sparked the world's worst nuclear accident in Chernobyl, nearly a quarter of a million construction workers risked their lives to build an ad hoc "sarcophagus" of concrete around the stricken reactor. It was a stop-gap measure—and now, almost 3o years later, one of the biggest engineering projects in history is underway to protect it.

The BBC reports on the $2 billion project to protect the decaying metal sarcophagus, using an even larger metal shield called the New Safe Confinement, or NSC. In simple terms, the NSC is a massive steel archway that is designed to protect the surrounding region if the 27-year-old sarcophagus eventually collapses. The design was proposed back in 1992 by a team of British engineers, but planning has taken more than a decade—the project is now halfway complete, with a target date of 2015 for final completion.

There are myriad reasons it's taken so long to get the NSC up and running, the first being the sheer scale of this 300-foot-tall protective shield. Since it will cover the existing sarcophagus, the arch is big enough to house the Statue of Liberty and wide enough to accommodate a soccer field. It's being built by thousands of workers and engineers from all over the world, each of whom has a monthly and yearly exposure limit based on where, and for how long, they work on the site.

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Despite the incredible lengths required to build the structure, it's still only a band-aid: Designed to last for roughly 100 years, it is a more sophisticated solution to a problem scientists still don't know how to solve.

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[BlueStreak]

1. Too bad the options for Fukushima aren't nearly so good

All they have there is "The solution to pollution is dilution."

[longship]

2. Well, that IS a viable solution.

No pun intended.

Not that Fukushima Daiichi doesn't suck. The solution (again, no pun intended) is to first carefully remove the fuel from those spent fuel pools, and then decommission the reactors.

A sarcarphagus is definitely not an option at Fukushima because, unlike Chernobyl, Fukushima did not have an explosion and fire in the core of the reactor. If one wants to fix the Fukushima situation a sarcarphagus will not work.

They have to clean the site up. That's the only viable solution. It's going to take years.

[Marblehead]

3. too cheap to meter

[SoLeftIAmRight]

4. Say it again!

There is one born every minute.