Pictures: Race Against Time to Build a New Tomb for Chernobyl

Beneath the Arch

Photograph by Sergey Dolzhenko, European Pressphoto Agency

A cherry picker lifts workers to the underside of the massive new steel arch designed to cover Chernobyl.

When completed, the structure will be slid about 980 feet (300 meters) on tracks into place over the damaged reactor building and sealed. It will stand more than 344 feet (105 meters) tall, and will span 843 feet (257 meters).

Vince Novak, head of nuclear safety at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is leading the project, said the structure is being built away from the damaged reactor both to increase construction speed and for worker safety. "Radiation levels (in the construction zone) are sufficiently low that they can work there for an unlimited amount of time without specialized protective gear," Novak said.

In the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl, the Soviet Union dispatched thousands of workers to the site; the so-called "liquidators" sustained massive doses of radiation in the effort to secure the site. (Related: "Pictures: ‘Liquidators’ Endured Chernobyl 25 Years Ago") A 1,100-square-mile (2,850-square-kilometer) area around Chernobyl, the exclusion zone, remains closed to most people and agriculture. (Related: "Pictures: Animals Inherit Mixed Legacy at Chernobyl")

Published December 27, 2012

Testing the Design

Photograph by Efrem Lukatsky, AP

Construction workers assemble the arched roof of the new shelter. Fund-raising for the project began in 1997. The money pledged by donor nations is sufficient to complete the project, European Bank officials say. With high construction costs, Novak said, the team cannot afford delays. Yet much work remains to be done. Novak called the successful completion of the first section in November an important test of the design. "It demonstrated many things that one should not take for granted," he said, including that computer modeling performed in Italy translated to on-the-ground workability. "Everything fit together perfectly."

Published December 27, 2012

Shoring Up the Ruins

Photograph by Sergey Dolzhenko, European Pressphoto Agency

It looks like a typical unfinished construction site, ringed by dirt, with scaffolding against a wall. But the job of entombing Chernobyl is unlike any other.

The external structure that looks like scaffolding supports a damaged wall at the one-time power plant. Before beginning assembly of the New Safe Confinement, workers had to shore up the building to reduce the risk of collapse. The team faces a number of challenges before the new cover can be moved into place and sealed. One of the most difficult, Novak said, is removing the ventilation stack that towers over Chernobyl. The stack must first be stabilized before it can be disassembled section by section, fragmented, tested for radiation, and removed.

Published December 27, 2012

The Ghost Town of Pripyat

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

The high rises of Pripyat have a view of Chernobyl, but no one lives behind their darkened windows.

The town, which was built to house power-plant and construction staff, once held around 50,000 people, all of whom were permanently evacuated after the accident. In total, more than 330,000 people were forced to abandon their homes in the region surrounding Chernobyl.

"As you drive through the exclusion zone, you see village after village that have been decaying for over 25 years," said Ron Chesser, a professor of behavioral ecology at Texas Tech University who was the first American allowed into the zone in 1992. "It's pretty sobering to go through a place where people used to live."

Published December 27, 2012

A Charred Chamber, Frozen in Time

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

The control room sits empty at reactor number four, the site where the meltdown occurred. Although the sarcophagus has entombed the damaged reactor in concrete, much of the power plant remains preserved as the workers left it after the explosion. Chesser said the remains of Chernobyl and the surrounding area provide a textbookstudy ofthe dynamics and effects of the nuclear meltdown process. "It is a very unique event that we can still learn a lot from scientifically," Chesser said.

Published December 27, 2012

A Burial That Takes Generations

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

Wearing protective air masks, men work outside the structure containing Chernobyl reactor number four in 2005.

Efforts have been under way for years to keep the radioactive material at Chernobyl contained. The New Safe Confinement is designed to last 100 years, and to facilitate the dismantling of the reactor and eventual removal of the fuel rods.

Planning for the final stages of the Chernobyl cleanup is continuing, Novak said. In time, Novak said radiation levels will fall significantly and the environment will be safer for workers. He also expects that scientists and engineers will develop new technologies that will aid the final dismantling.

Published December 27, 2012

An Accident's Long Legacy

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

A man and boy suffering from thyroid cancer receive care at a thyroid center in 2005.

Elevated rates of thyroid cancer, particularly among children and adolescents who drank contaminated milk after the Chernobyl accident, are a lingering effect of the catastrophe. By 2005, more than 6,000 thyroid cancer cases had been diagnosed among these children in Belarus, Ukraine, and the most affected Russian areas, according to the United Nations. The numbers are expected to increase, and the patients will need medical attention for the rest of their lives. (Related: "The Long Shadow of Chernobyl")

Published December 27, 2012

Next: Animals Inherit Mixed Legacy at Chernobyl

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

Published December 27, 2012