New cover begins to be moved over Chornobyl NPP

New cover begins to be moved over Chornobyl NPP

The process of placing a new cover (New Safe Confinement, NSC) over Chornobyl nuclear power plant's (NPP) fourth power unit began.It is planned that the entire process will take up to four days with the overall time of non-stop movement of roughly 33 hours.The NSC installment will make the Chornobyl NPP ground safe and will allow removing the current outdating cover, as well as the operations involving radioactive waste inside this structure.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 and the remnants of the fourth power unit. The NSC has a design service life of 100 years and cost EUR1.5 billion.