Kiev - The French construction company Novarka will repair
an ageing protective shelter built over the radioactive remains of
Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power station, a senior Ukrainian
official said on Tuesday.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will
fund the project for a planned 472 million dollars, said Nestor
Shufich, head of Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, at a
Kiev press conference.
The EBRD awarded Novarka the contract after a competitive tender,
Shufrich said. A construction contract between Novarka and the
Ukrainian government will be signed 'in the future,' he added.
The EBRD opened the tender in 2004. A competing joint bid from US
CH2M Hill and Ukrainian Interbudmontazh lost out as its offer to to
the job cost 584 million dollars, according to the report.
Site of the world's worst-ever nuclear power accident in 1986, the
remains of an exploded reactor at the Chernobyl station are enclosed
in a reinforced concrete structure almost always referred to, in
Ukraine, as 'The Sarcophagus'.
Exposure to weather and poor construction standards used during
the sarcophagus' erection 21 years ago have left the structure weak,
and in places open to the environment.
Novarka has proposed building a new shelter around the existing
sarcophagus, and possibly removing the most dangerous contents to a
newly-constructed, modern containment structure, guaranteed to stand
for at least a century.
A multi-national assembly of donor nations and agencies including
the EBRD has pledged more than 1 billion dollars to the project.
Novarka will receive up to 671 million dollars (470 million Euros)
from the EBRD for the construction project and other associated jobs,
a bank official said.
Besides construction and dealing with the still-hot radioactive
materials at the station, fund money also will go towards
environmental protection and local economic assistance, according to
the report.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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