Chernobyl: Containing the world's worst nuclear accident

Author: David Shukman, BBC News, 18 March 2015

Rising above the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident is the spectacular sight of the largest moveable structure ever created on land.

The complex of nuclear power plants at Chernobyl has dominated this corner of northwest Ukraine for decades but the new construction towers over it all.

The project is to build what is called a New Safe Confinement – in effect, a giant cover, a kind of dome, to fit over the building that houses the reactor that exploded on 26 April, 1986.

The radiation immediately above the reactor is still far too intense for the new enclosure to be built exactly where it is needed – anyone working there can only stay very briefly.

So adjacent land has been cleared and then decontaminated – a massive task in itself – to allow the new structure to be assembled before being manoeuvred into position.

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