At the same time as enthusiasm is growing for the use of nuclear fission as a non-greenhouse gas emitting energy source, the crumbling concrete tomb around the Chernobyl reactor is to be encased in steel, at an approximate cost of $1.4 billion. The doomed reactor will be covered by “a giant arch-shaped structure out of steel, 190 metres (623 feet) wide and 200m long.” Of course, it is only a matter of time before the new carapace will need to be replaced, in turn.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred back in 1986. Despite causing widespread contamination, about 95% of the radioactive material initially present remains within the site of the reactor complex. A motorcycle-riding photographer named Elena has put some haunting photos of the abandoned area on her website.
Just yesterday, Dr. Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace) urged the more widespread use of fission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As ever, there are three big problems with nuclear fission: waste that will be dangerous for a span longer than the existence of civilization thus far, the possibility of catastrophic accidents, and the connection between civilian nuclear capability and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is certainly becoming less clear-cut that nuclear is a worse option than the alternatives. For one thing, new reactor designs like the South African pebble bed promise to reduce the chances of accidents. On the proliferation side, there is talk of fuel supplier countries taking back spent rods, as protection against their plutonium being extracted and used for bombs. Of course, that just worsens the nuclear waste situation. The fact that it is all sitting in ‘temporary’ reactor ponds and that no state has constructed a permanent geological storage facility for radioactive waste should continue to give us pause.
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See also: Zone of Alienation
The Zone of Alienation, which is variously referred to as The Chernobyl Zone, The 30 Kilometer Zone, The Zone of Exclusion, The Fourth Zone, or just The Zone (Ukrainian official designation: Зона відчуження Чорнобильської АЕС, zona vidchuzhennya Chornobyl’s'koyi AES, colloquially: Чорнобильська зона, Chornobyl’s'ka zona оr Четверта зона, Chetverta zona) is the 30 km/19 mi exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. Geographically, it includes northernmost parts of Kyivs’ka oblast’ and Zhytomyrs’ka oblast’ of Ukraine, and adjoins the country’s border with Belarus.
Making EU climate goal ‘unlikely’
The European Union’s goal of keeping the global temperature rise to 2C is unlikely to be met, a leading climate researcher has warned.
Professor Martin Parry told BBC News that millions, if not tens of millions, would be at increased risk to their lives from a rise above 2C (3.6F).
Professor Parry co-chairs the impacts working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
How long will the new steel cover last?
Your posts are too damn good again – I burnt my rice trying to catch up. Will probably end up posting way too many on Facebook. Many thanks for the information/stimulation.
Chernobyl lessons on Flying Penguin
Tom, the new cover is designed to last a 100 years, which probably means it will be good for about 30.
Tom, the new cover is designed to last a 100 years, which probably means it will be good for about 30.
At least they didn’t wait until the present sarcophagus was breached.
American energy utility NRG Energy is planning to build two reactors for nuclear power in Texas. Its application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to construct the reactors marks the first such request in the United States for three decades.
Meanwhile, Italy is reversing a 20-year post-Chernobyl moratorium on nuclear fission research to participate in the scientific development of ‘Generation IV’ nuclear reactors. How exactly the country will contribute to the Generation IV research has not yet been revealed. The planned next generation of nuclear power plants is intended to improve nuclear safety and to minimize waste and natural-resource use compared with the current generation of plants.
Photos from Pripyat, abandoned Chernobyl workers’ town
By Cory Doctorow on Photo
Here’s a massive, haunting collection of photos from Pripyat, Ukraine, the industrial city that housed Chernobyl’s workforce. It’s been an abandoned radioactive no-go zone for some 23 years now, gradually sinking into ruin, and it just gets more and more beautiful and melancholy.
Ukraine, Pripyat. 2009
Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and sucking up Canadian money
Doug Saunders
Kiev — From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010 10:17PM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010 4:49AM EST
Almost a quarter-century after its explosion killed hundreds and shocked the world, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor still sits crumbling amid an uninhabitable wasteland in northern Ukraine, still emits surprising amounts of radiation, and still absorbs vast amounts of money.
Much of that money, at least $71-million of it, has come from Canadian taxpayers, intended to pay for a project launched in 1997 under a pledge from leaders of the G-7 countries to enclose the reactor in a permanent, sealed sarcophagus.
It was meant to be finished in eight years and cost $768-million (U.S.), a symbol of a resurgent Ukraine returning to democratic government and an open economy, putting the 1986 disaster permanently in the past.
But in a story of tragic disappointment that exemplifies the web of corruption and distrust that so often ensnares relations between Ukraine and the West, 13 years later the cost of the project has ballooned to almost $2-billion and construction has not even begun.
Canadian officials describe it as a “money sink” that has fallen prey to the worst aspects of Ukraine’s failed development, a physical manifestation of the once-wealthy country’s political decay.
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