Chernobyl metal sold for scrap

Archiv – Pieces of metal from the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine – scene of the world’s worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986 – are to be sold for scrap, according to an article in ’The Australian’.Pieces of metal from the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine – scene of the world’s worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986 – are to be sold for scrap, according to an article in ’The Australian’.
Olexandre Smyshliayev, Director of the public company Chernobylskaya which ran the former power station, is reported to have said that part of the plant would be cut up and sold to help pay for reinforcing the sarcophagus of the damaged reactor, which is currently under threat of collapse. He was quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency as saying that all the material to be taken from the site had been tested by the authorities for levels of radiation and had been found to be ’clean’.
The scrap metal will come from sections of the plant farthest from the reactor. Mr Smyshliayev said that no material from the reinforced concrete sarcophagus that surrounds the reactor would be sold. Russia could be the main customer for the scrap since it still operates power stations similar to the one in Chernobyl.
Nineteen years ago, the core of the fourth reactor at Chernobyl exploded and, for a period of 10 days, spewed radioactive material equivalent to more than 200 Hiroshima bombs into the air, thereby contaminating large swathes of Europe and particularly Belarussia. The Soviet government said that 31 people were killed instantly, while UN figures suggest that between 15 000 and 30 000 have died since and that nearly 6 million people continue to live in contaminated zones.
Chernobyl was eventually closed in December 2000 with international financial aid, only part of which has been paid. The international community has raised more than ‘‚¬ 720 million ($1.19 billion) for the construction of a 20 000-tonne steel case to cover the existing sarcophagus, which was rapidly constructed after the accident. The project must be completed by 2008.