Chernobyl shield: the project of a lifetime

Xavier Huillard, CEO of Vinci, Philippe Bonnave, CEO of Bouygues Construction and Nicolas Caille, project manager at Novarka, present the project of a lifetime: the Chernobyl sarcophagus which took 25 years for its conception and realization and which will serve the decommissioning of the plant, 30 years after the accident.

"The new Chernobyl shield is a unique project. Ten thousand people, men and women of almost 30 nationalities have dedicated part of their lives to make this feat possible. To imagine and design a smart metal arch to secure and dismantle the damaged reactor, construct and equip it, and then push it to its final location. This incredible challenge has forced us to surpass ourselves daily. This represents 25 million hours of work between design engineering and on-site work. In a year, once the final technical elements in place and tested, we will deliver to Ukraine a secure infrastructure for the next 100 years," says Nicolas Caille.

The transformation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, thanks to the construction of a new shield, is nearing completion. A crucial step has just been taken with the pushing of the arch to its final position, just above reactor n ° 4. "We can now say that the site will be well finished by November 2017, as planned," declared Suma Chakrabarti, President of EBRD.