French to encase Chernobyl reactor

The World Health Organisation puts the number of Chernobyl-linked deaths at 9000, while Greenpeace predicts a toll of 93,000. Photo / Reuters

KIEV - French-led consortium Novarka has won a tender to build a new shelter to encase the shattered fourth reactor at Ukraine's Chernobyl power station, site of the world's worst nuclear accident.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has co-ordinated efforts to construct a "sarcophagus" to replace the leaking structure hurriedly erected by workers and troops in the months after the April 1986 explosion and fire at the site. It has been seeking a contractor since 2004.

The entire project is expected to cost about US$1 billion ($1.32 billion) and funds totalling that have been raised since the 1990s. Large amounts of nuclear fuel remain inside the structure.

Novarka is headed by French firms Bouygues and Vinci. The consortium also includes Germany's Hochtief and RWE.

- Reuters