Building Chernobyl's MegaTomb

In April 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in the former Soviet Russia region of Ukraine. More than 30 lives were lost in the steam explosion and radioactive aftermath, and a third of a million people had to be permanently relocated from the nearest city, after which a 19-mile exclusion zone was formed. Filmmaker Martin Gorst's PBS-aired NOVA documentary looks at plans to remove the original "sarcophagus" built over the radioactive ruins, a structure that was only meant to last 30 years. After a lengthy search, a French construction firm was selected to build and move a massive arch 350 feet high that would provide new cover. Because of radioactive dust still leaking from the site, the arch has to be assembled some distance away, and then slid on skids over the sarcophagus. Eventually, the original containment unit must be removed, and the radioactive waste stored in a secure facility, but these details have not yet been worked out. The arch weighs as much as three-and-a-half Eiffel Towers, and work is slowed by winter weather, which brings bitter wind blasts, along with heavy snow and ice buildup. After 18 years of planning, followed by seven years of construction, the arch is now in place, hopefully securing the facility for at least another hundred years (the radioactive material will remain dangerous for 20,000 years). The tragic accident at Chernobyl and the response to it illustrates science at both its best and worst. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)