Part of a sliding shelter that will eventually cover unit 4 at Chernobyl was lifted into place Tuesday, marking a significant step toward covering the former Soviet reactor hastily entombed following the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.
Known as the New Safe Confinement, the completed structure will measure 843 feet long, 538 feet wide and 361 feet tall. The first section of its roof, weighing 5,500 tons, was raised to a preliminary height of 72 feet, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The EBRD expects the project will be complete in 2015, when what is expected to be the world's largest movable structure is maneuvered over the damaged reactor. G-7 members and other countries established the Chernobyl Shelter Fund in 1997 to address the decaying sarcophagus that currently separates the plant from the environment. The fund is expected to spend about $2 billion to shelter the reactor.