14 Jun (NucNet): The second stage of lifting for the arched New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant has begun.
Lifting of the eastern segment of the steel arch started on Wednesday 12 June, following the completion yesterday of safety-related inspections of jacking systems and site foundations, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said in a statement. The operation was scheduled to last two days.
The NSC is costing about one billion euro (1.3 billion US dollars) and should be completed by 2015.
When completed, the arched NSC will be slid over the original sarcophagus structure built soon after the 1986 accident to encase the destroyed unit four at the plant.
The NSC will be airtight to protect the environment from radioactive dust and will contain remote handling equipment that will enable engineers to eventually dismantle the remains of the reactor.
When fully assembled, the NSC will have a span of 257 metres, a length of 164 metres, a height of 110 metres and a weight of 29,000 tonnes.
During the initial lifting operation in November 2012 around 5,000 tonnes of steel was raised to a preliminary height of up to 22 metres.
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