The launch of a New Safe Confinement (NSC) built over reactor four of Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) has been postponed from November 2017 until late May 2018, according to a posting on the website of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, referring to Deputy Head of the NSC project Serhiy Deriuha.
“Deriuha said that now Novarka contracting organization has problems linked to the delay in the implementation of the project. Taking this into account, the launch of the NSC is postponed from late November 2017 to late May 2018,” the authority said.
The spent nuclear fuel storage facility two would be launched in the second quarter of 2018.
As reported, Gamma radiation levels in the near zone from the fourth reactor of the Chornobyl NPP shrank on average by 90 percent after the sliding of the NSC.
Late November 2016, reactor four of Chornobyl NPP was covered with the NSC. The structure has a height of 110 meters, a length of 165 meter and a span of 260 meters. Its frame is a lattice construction of tubular steel members built on two longitudinal concrete beams.
The construction began in 2012 after large-scale preparation at the site. Due to its large dimensions, the NSC had to be built in two parts, which had been lifted and successfully connected with each other in 2015. A crane has been placed inside the NSC arc to dismantle the current old sarcophagus (Shelter facility) and the remnants of the fourth power unit. The NSC has a design service life of 100 years and cost 1.5 billion euros.
