Chernobyl's Sarcophagus, Redux

Lasrick (2629253) writes "With the news that a multinational consortium is to the halfway point in constructing a huge stainless steel hangar that will sit over the ruined site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, Dan Drollette looks in the archives of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and compares notes on the sarcophagus that was built 25 years ago, and the one that is being built now. 'No one really knows what went into the "concrete cube;" even the amount of concrete claimed to have been used is suspect, as it would form a volume larger than the sarcophagus, wrote nuclear engineer and author Alexander R. Sich in his 11-page article, "Truth was an early casualty."' Let's hope this new sarcophagus lasts longer."

Comments

Re:Getting it done, again.

[Anonymous Coward]

If by taking responsibility you mean reburying the highly radioactive blob and unspent fuel which will continue to work its way to their water table...then yes they are.

A true example for the rest of the world.

The truth is we can't adequately cope with runaway reactions of any scale. The best we can do is try to keep the scale small which doesn't produce enough power to be useful. We also don't have a solid plan on what to do with the waste products besides weapons proliferation.[lots of ideas, no solid plans]

Nuclear energy is clearly something we are all bad at.

Chicken Soup Engineering

[rmdingler]

It can't hurt and it might help.

On a positive note, deeds such as this involving international assistance reinforce my retarded optimism that humanity might rise above tribalism into something astonishing.