CHERNOBYL, 26 April (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Chernobyl, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine, where he will visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and nearby facilities, BelTA has learned.
Alexander Lukashenko was welcomed by Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko. The heads of state will pay special attention to the efforts to ensure a decent level of radiation security which is especially important for the residents of the two countries. The presidents will inspect the construction site of the future protective shelter and the storage of nuclear wastes, honor the memory of Chernobyl clean-up workers and victims of the accident.
The New Safe Confinement (NSC) design is an arch-shaped steel structure over unit No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is a multi-purpose complex intended to transform the destroyed facility into an environmentally-friendly system. The NSC consists of 19 substructures, including a special shelter in the form of an arc with a two-layer coating, a technological complex for the deactivation and packaging of radioactive materials, a ventilation system, a backup electricity supply network, fire safety systems, water treatment facilities, radiation and seismic control systems, other auxiliary facilities.
The arc is 257 meters wide, 160 meters long, and 109 meters high. The expected service life is from 70 to 100 years. In November 2016, the new arc was successfully installed over the previous one. The installation of equipment and system tests began after that. It is expected that the facility will be commissioned in November 2017.
The territory of the Chernobyl zone is approximately 260,000 hectares, including 30,000 hectares of a ten-kilometer industrial zone with the nuclear power plant and under-construction facilities.
Nuclear wastes are placed in a storage facility erected in 1986. The current capacity is about 99% of its design capacity. The construction of a new facility for the storage of nuclear wastes from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's units is in progress. The construction of a centralized nuclear wastes storage facility is also underway.
A year ago, the president of Ukraine signed a decree on the creation of the Chernobyl radiation ecology biosphere reserve with the total area of 227,000 hectares in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
