The Technonaut

It’s been over 21 years since the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, and the shattered remains of Reactor 4 are finally being sealed off. For the past two decades, a hastily constructed concrete sarcophagus has been the only thing preventing the continued release of radioactivity, and it has been slowly crumbling to pieces. A 19 mile Zone of Alienation remains around the site to this day.

On September 17th, Ukrainian officials announced a contract with French company Novarka to build a safer encasement, in the form of a massive steel vault. The roughly 650×600 foot arch-shaped building will be constructed on rails next to the reactor, then slid over the wreckage. Construction is expected to last 5 years, and cost a tidy $1.4 billion. Once the New Safe Confinement is in place, operators can use remote controlled equipment to demolish the unstable components of the old containment structure.

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