Chimney dismantling forms first part of project to seal site.
In early November workers started dismantling a chimney at the Chernobyl nuclear plant to make way for a new arch that will seal off the radioactive area surrounding the damaged nuclear reactor No. 4. The chimney has to be removed by sections, each weighing 50 tonnes.
A concrete and steel sarcophagus currently contains the radioactive waste. Hastily built by the Soviet Union after the accident, the sarcophagus is now in danger of collapsing. Part of the wall and roof of a turbine hall next to the reactor collapsed in February.
The arch cannot be built on top of the sarcophagus because radiation levels there are too high. Workers would exceed their annual radiation dose limit after spending 12 minutes on the roof.
The arch is 110 metres high and 257 metres wide — taller than the Statue of Liberty and spacious enough to house a football pitch.
Read more here, or view the video (with the ominous voiceover) below:
