Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, a new ‘silver arch’ becomes a silver lining for the world’s worst nuclear accident

THIRTY years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, a team of workers prepares to cover the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power station with a gigantic “silver arch”.

A chimney over the destroyed reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (left), and the gigantic steel-arch under construction to cover the remnants of the exploded reactor, in the town of Prypyat.

THIRTY years after the world’s worst nuclear accident devastated Chernobyl and the surrounding countryside, a team of workers prepares to cover the ill-fated nuclear power station with a gigantic steel enclosure or large hangar. Seven months in construction, the “silver arch” is designed to last at least 100 years and will replace the concrete sarcophagus that was hastily built in the immediate wake of the disaster in 1986.

Once off limits to all but emergency workers, the area around Chernobyl and, in particular, the evacuated city of Pripyat, is now open to limited numbers of tourists and visitors.

But it is a very different scene to that of 30 years ago. At 1.23am on April 26, 1986, while technicians at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were conducting a routine test to see how the No. 4 reactor would cope under certain conditions, something went horribly wrong. Safety systems that should have kicked in to prevent a meltdown had been turned off for the test, so when there was a sudden power surge the technicians were caught off guard. The resulting chain reaction caused an explosion that blew the cap off the reactor building, sending radioactive material into the atmosphere.

An aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, shows the damage from an explosion and fire in reactor No.4 on April 26, 1986.

It was a blast figuratively heard around the world. The fallout from the explosion spread across eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and contaminants were later detected right around the world. It was also the biggest nuclear disaster to date. How the Soviets handled it would become a lesson for the nuclear power industry worldwide.

When the disaster happened, the initial response was slow. At least 30 people died in the blast, the subsequent fire or from radiation exposure in the days following the accident. When fire spread across the roof of the power plant a supervisor in the adjacent No. 3 reactor wanted to shut it down and evacuate. He was ordered to keep it running. Workers were given breathing masks and told to keep working.

A chimney over the destroyed reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (left), and the gigantic steel-arch under construction to cover the remnants of the exploded reactor, in the town of Prypyat.

Within 10 or 15 minutes, the fire brigade arrived but weren’t told that it was the reactor core on fire. By 6am they had extinguished most of the external fires around the power station, preventing further disaster, but the graphite that had acted as the fuel rod moderator inside the reactor continued to burn. Over the next two weeks hundreds more firefighters and military emergency workers tried to douse the fire, using loads of lead and sand.

The authorities initially tried to cover up the disaster but within days Swedish monitoring stations detected unusually high levels of radioactive contaminants in the atmosphere drifting from the USSR. The Soviets were forced to admit that the meltdown had occurred. The power plant was run by Moscow and Russian authorities even tried to keep the Ukrainians in the dark about the dangers.

This photo taken on March 23, 2016, shows abandoned apartment buildings in the town of Pripyat.

The fact that the explosion had happened only days before May Day, an important festival in the communist nation, also made authorities slow to react, not wanting evacuate towns preparing for the celebrations.

It was more than 24 hours before evacuations from a 3km radius around the reactor began. The first citizens moved were from Pripyat. Residents were told the evacuation would be temporary and to take only absolute necessities. Pictures show belongings strewn about the town as if people left in a hurry. Gas masks were scattered alongside toys, everything covered with a layer of dust.

A doll and gas masks, covered by the radioactive dust in an abandoned kindergarten in the ghost town of Pripyat.

Evacuations were eventually widened to a 30km radius. During the 30 years since, buildings have begun to decay and the forests are reclaiming the towns.

To contain continuing radiation leaks workers began constructing a steel and concrete sarcophagus around the reactor. Work was completed in November 1986 but the Soviets later revealed this was only a temporary solution that would last 20 to 30 years.

The estimates of those exposed to radiation by the nuclear fallout, the fire fighting and construction efforts thereafter, varies. But some suggest it is in the tens of thousands.

While the disaster has provided lessons in how to deal with such a disaster it has forever tarnished the image of nuclear power.

Originally published as Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, a new ‘silver arch’ becomes a silver lining for the world’s worst nuclear accident