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 'within a week after September
17...if everything goes to schedule,' 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.
An end date for the construction project was not made public.
Liquid radioactive materials inside the sarcophagus would be removed
to a safer location during 2009, predicted Volodymyr Holosh, a
Chernobyl station spokesman.
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.
In a related development, the EBRD on Tuesday announced that US
Holtec had been contracted for 41 million dollars as the construction
firm for the separate radioacative material containment and
processing facility, in cooperation with the Ukrainian government.
The site will contain technology to process dangerous radioactive
materials to a safer form, with the construction contract scheduled
to be signed in September, Shufrich said.
Belgian Belgatom, Italian Ansaldo, and French SGN will participate
in building the processing plant, along with Ukrainian construction
companies, Interfax reported.
A multi-national assembly of donor nations and agencies including
the EBRD in 2000 pledged more than 1 billion dollars to the project.
Novarka could receive up to 671 million dollars (490 million Euros)
from the EBRD for the shelter construction project, together with
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.
At least 8 million dollars according to Shufrich will be spent on
closing down and neutralising the radioactive contents a single
functional reactor at the Chernobyl station, turned off by Ukraine in
2000 in exchange for promises of assistance money from the
international community.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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