What will happen to the Chernobyl power plant?
A 36,000-tonne ‘steel hangar’ encases the Chernobyl power plant’s Reactor 4’, the location of the worst nuclear disaster of all time, which took place back in 1986. But what are the long-term plans for Chernobyl’s still-radioactive interior?
The Chernobyl accident on 26 April 1986 is considered the worst nuclear accident of all time. Human error following a routine test caused two explosions that ruptured the reactor building and released large quantities of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
In the nearby town of Pripyat, the population of around 50,000 people were quickly evacuated. They never returned. Today the power plant is surrounded by a 30km exclusion zone.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s molten Reactor 4 now rests in a gigantic steel tomb, known as the New Safe
Confinement, standing 110 metres high and weighing 36,000 tonnes – three times more than the Eiffel Tower. It is designed to last for at least 100 years and withstand a 6.0 earthquake.
But inside the New Safe Confinement, the reactor building still holds around 200 tonnes of radioactive material that will eventually require disposal. A concrete sarcophagus was hastily built around the destroyed Reactor 4 during the months following the disaster, in an attempt to contain the radiation. But the concrete is crumbling.
The plan is for robots to dismantle the unstable concrete sarcophagus and then store the radioactive material safely in the deserted enclosed area around Chernobyl. The reactor building itself would then be dismantled, and the molten core finally removed.
The process is expected to take until around the year 2065, and will make extensive use of robotics. For this purpose the New Safe Confinement was constructed with a built-in rail system and two cranes in the ceiling that allow robotic arms and tools such as grippers, pneumatic drills and cutting torches to be mounted and moved above the reactor. The cranes can lift items of up to 50 tonnes each.