French Firm Wins Tender To Build Chernobyl Shelter
Date: 08-Aug-07
Country: UKRAINE
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has coordinated efforts to construct a "sarcophagus" to replace the leaking structure hurriedly erected by workers and troops in the months following the April 1986 explosion and fire at the site. It has been seeking a contractor since 2004.
"The tender has been completed and Novarka has been declared the winner," a bank spokesman said by telephone. "But no final contract has been signed for now."
A bank statement said the agreement would provide for further funding of more than 364 million euros (US$498 million).
The entire project, including construction of the confinement vessel, is expected to cost about $1 billion and funds totalling that have been raised since the 1990s.
Novarka is headed by French firms Bouygues and Vinci. The consortium also includes Germany's Hochtief and RWE, grouping four of Europe's biggest construction firms as well as local Ukrainian companies.
Ukraine, which has long lobbied for international help in building the structure, estimates it will take three years to complete the project.
President Viktor Yushchenko, marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster last year, said it was vital to come up with funding to tackle problems with serious, long-term consequences for the entire European continent.
Large amounts of nuclear fuel remain inside the structure.
Estimates of the number of deaths linked to the Chernobyl accident vary widely. The World Health Organisation puts the number at 9,000, while the environmental group Greenpeace predicts an eventual death toll of 93,000.
Some 200,000 residents were evacuated from Ukraine alone, though the accident hit neighbouring Belarus particularly hard. Experts are still studying the long-term effects on health, particularly the incidence of thyroid cancer.
