Friday, May 6, 2011

Chernobyl Still Falling Apart

Ukraine and Russia remember the Chernobyl disaster, which took place 25 years ago. In the meantime, the question of safety of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant still remains unsolved. A sarcophagus was built on the fourth reactor of the plant after the breakdown, but the sarcophagus has been falling to pieces slowly but surely during the recent years.

The largest nuclear disaster in the history of mankind took place in Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. The fourth power-generating unit of the plant exploded. The territory in the radius of 30 kilometers has been contaminated with radiation. Nineteen Russian regions - the total square of nearly 60,000 km2 and the 2.6-million-strong population - suffered from radioactive pollution. In Belarus, radiation affected 46,500 km2 of land, which makes up 23 percent of the total territory of the republic. The total square of radioactive pollution in Ukraine made up 50,000 km2 in 12 regions.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was shut down on December 5, 2000.

The sarcophagus built above the exploded reactor lasts for 30 years. Therefore, in approximately five years, the shelter will no longer be able to contain the process of radioactive emission from the destroyed reactor. The question of the construction of the new shelter above the exploded reactor has been gaining more and more importance recently, RIA Novosti reports.

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