Over the years, the "sarcophagus" was sometimes synonymous with tragedy, then - heroism, then - state blackmail. Today it is tested with huge money

There was a rumor: the “sarcophagus” was about to be lowered forever into the depth, into a hundred-meter well, prepared in case of such an emergency by the designers of the nuclear power plant. The consciousness of post-Soviet people resisted the obvious: they couldn’t help but foresee!..

not robots

Who and when first called the "Shelter" object over the fourth exploded power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant "sarcophagus" for the first time, I could not find out. At the station they are sure: the journalists themselves named it. Created an image.

"Sarcophagus" rose at the end of 1986, seven months after the accident, relying on the surviving structures with tons of concrete. Fuel-containing masses, radioactive dust and radioactive water were enclosed inside. Rain turned into it, which flowed into cracks and holes on the roof and at the joints of the structure. Construction was carried out at an incredible pace, sacrificially, but the result could not have been different. From the cracks "fonilo".

- Immediately, people, the expedition of the Kurchatov Institute, went to the middle of the object - to determine not only by mathematical means exactly where and how much fuel was left. About 200 tons are here...

The pointer slides over the insides of the layout. Yulia Marusich, specialist of the ChNPP International Cooperation and Information Department, conducts a tour in the demonstration pavilion, which is also an observation deck for guests. Behind the glass of the bay window, the beauty of which is somewhat spoiled by stickers: “Photo and video filming is strictly prohibited!” - rises the gray original, the Shelter object.

- A fact is known: the lower plate of the reactor burned out, and the molten fuel began to move. There was a threat that everything could get into the soil, into the groundwater. Then a tunnel was laid under the building of the fourth from the side of the third block. It was planned to fill it with liquid nitrogen. But this was not necessary, because the fuel-containing mass spontaneously stopped in the sub-reactor rooms. And the temperature began to drop very quickly, very sharply. Literally from 2000 degrees Celsius to 50. Now we are also measuring temperature parameters. Under the reactor, above the surface of the fuel, at a distance of 2 meters, a meter, there are sensors.

- Were they installed by robots?

“Unfortunately people. Wells were drilled in the appropriate premises and lowered there.

Are the sensors still usable?

Yes, at work. Temperature, humidity, neutron flux power, gamma radiation dose rate are measured. Most recently, at the end of 2011, the Shelter object automated control system was put into operation, modern sensors appeared. The object is dotted with them at different levels. Now the behavior of building structures is also controlled. This is again a concern for improving the safety of personnel. Previously, any deviations were determined only visually: people went inside ... Another direction is seismic control, which is especially important after Fukushima. The project is integrated into the action plan for the construction of a new safe confinement (from the English " confinement " - "isolation", "imprisonment." - O.M. ). The EBRD and a number of donor countries finance, all are presented in our exposition.

- In 2011, of course, robotic technologies were used?

The robots, unfortunately, could not stand it. High fields disabled electronics. Well, and purely physical barriers: some of the premises are littered, others are filled with concrete. Wells were drilled...

Shelter stabilization cost $50 million. To date, this is the only completed project on the site, carried out with international funds.

Paying for fear

The fact that the "sarcophagus" is designed for a maximum of three decades and fresh ideas are needed was actively discussed at the beginning of 1992, at the suggestion of the French nuclear scientist, Professor Pellerin, who visited the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In June, at the initiative of the Ukrainian government, an international competition was announced to turn the Shelter into an environmentally friendly facility. Long summed up. The French company Kampenon Bernard was recognized as the winner. TACIS allocated 3 million ECU for the feasibility study phase. The tender was won by the newly created expert and production association of European firms Alliance ("Alliance"). The consortium proposed to cover the “sarcophagus” with a dome along with the neighboring, third unit, in order to then carry out the excavation and disposal of nuclear waste from the destroyed reactor. But for the second stage, "Alliance" did not undertake: not his profile. The estimated cost of construction was 1 billion 600 million dollars.

It makes sense to remember the sum and essence of the proposal. Kyiv did not have such funds. President Kravchuk refused the dome.

Meanwhile, the scientific community of Ukraine was discussing the scandalous preprint of the Kurchatov Institute, signed by Academician Spartak Belyaev. The document, printed in only 62 copies, noted: calculations on the "inner world" of the "sarcophagus" are often adjusted to the actions and statements of the top leadership, including the political one. For example, the footage of the chronicle that has spread all over the world was called “fiction”: Academician Velikhov introduces a research probe into the reactor shaft - since the probe did not fall into the shaft at all, but into the northern cooling pool. What did he measure? Many similar examples were given in the preprint. The conclusion suggested itself: before building another protective building, it is necessary to honestly answer questions about the location of radioactive fuel, its characteristics, volumes, and the method of extraction. Questions were expensive in every sense.

And a rumor was circulating in Kyiv: the “sarcophagus” was about to be lowered forever into the depth, into a hundred-meter well, prepared in case of such an emergency by the designers of the nuclear power plant. The consciousness of post-Soviet people resisted the obvious: they couldn’t help but foresee!..

In the mid-1990s, there were frequent reports in the media from official sources about a sharp increase in the neutron flux, which was recorded by sensors. Chain reaction followed by an explosion? The personnel of the operating Chernobyl even had to be evacuated twice. "Shelter" was compared to a barn full of holes. And money from the budget for the next repair was urgently allocated. In the case of a delay in the amount, the “font” began to be much stronger.

By the 10th anniversary of the accident, the conflict of interest of those who make decisions had reached a peak. The West promised Ukraine payment for its fear. But in return he insisted on the complete closure of the station. (Given that the third, operating power unit had a common wall with the fourth, the demand did not seem excessive.) Kyiv simultaneously wanted to save money for the Shelter and the nuclear power plant.

“From the“ sarcophagus ”the State Committee for Atomic Energy represented by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine feed. Each department accumulates a database that is beneficial to itself. There is no objective information,” Vladimir Usatenko, senior consultant of the Chernobyl Commission of the Verkhovna Rada, explained then. I took a comment from Vladimir Ivanovich in 1996, after, with the permission of the Chernobyl Director General Sergei Konstantinovich Parashin, I walked on the roof of the "sarcophagus". She experienced reliability by climbing the stairs of the buttress wall with a dosimeter. As a keepsake, I was given a certificate with the received microdose, which is not at all harmful to health. And I wrote a report. It seems that it supported the evidence base of one of the departments ... However, other ideas won.

Peoples' Financial Friendship Arch

In December 2000, President Leonid Kuchma solemnly, with a broadcast on TV, fulfilled the condition of the European Union. He gave the command to shut down the last operating power unit. Now the plan for the implementation of activities at the Shelter object, adopted in 1997 at the initiative of the G7, was not hindered by anything - except for the lively political processes in Ukraine and the expansion of the circle of structures in Europe wishing to participate in the rescue of Chernobyl. It is not possible now to indicate the order of figures in which the competitive struggle of Western companies for a grand order, as well as interaction with official Kiev - ministers, the leadership of the nuclear power plant, lobbyists in the parliamentary and scientific environment - in everyday life called "kickbacks" - is not possible. The testimonies are contradictory, although they coincide in the main thing: all this ensured a creeping rise in the price of a humane action.

In March 2004, still under Kuchma, the EBRD announced a tender for the design, construction and commissioning of a new safe confinement. In 2007, already under Yushchenko, they finally signed a contract. The contract cost was 505 million dollars, the implementation period was 5 years. The work was undertaken by a French consortium, whose name sounded quite Ukrainian: NOVARKA - "Nova Arch". But for some reason, Vince Novak, director of the EBRD's nuclear safety department, voiced claims against President Viktor Yushchenko and his "disgusting management" only after another change of power, that is, in 2010. I quote his words from a publication in the Canadian TheGlobeandMail: “In order to avoid any loss of allocated funds from corruption, we had to take increased security measures, and sometimes this meant that there were periods, calculated for years, when none of the Ukrainians did anything” .

Tellingly, Kyiv did not seek refutation. The bank didn't stir up a scandal either. And together with the countries - contributors to the Chernobyl Fund, he collected more than 900 million, not dollars, but euros. Neither the global financial crisis nor the problems of our own economies became obstacles. For example, along with France, the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and other countries, Greece has raised 5 million for the New Safe Confinement. Kuwait donated about the same amount.

In total, according to updated data, the cost of the project is 1 billion 540 million euros. For them, NOVARKA has now guaranteed by 2015 a beautiful arch pulled over the “sarcophagus”, from where the dangerous contents will be removed later. About who, how, when and for how much will take up this very second stage, they were silent. Remake of the 90s, only the price of the dome went up? “Money goes around the circle, partially settling in the pockets of those involved, and comes back along the European corridor,” the Ukrainian specialized news agency AtomNews concluded. A number of practitioners, including laureates of the State Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine, the first head of the Shelter object Vladimir Shcherbina and one of the former directors of the Chernobyl nuclear plant Mikhail Umanets, spoke in unison: it means that running in place - "surprise" suits both sides if Ukrainian professionals are silent, and Western consultants make decisions. They tried to present "Grandfathers" as slanderers.

On April 26, 2012, Viktor Yanukovych flew by helicopter to Chernobyl, because of which, for the first time in a quarter of a century, there were traffic jams from escort and security vehicles. They put together a tribune with a special button for the president. The button, when pressed, made the sound “Tu-u ...” On the site, cleared of radioactive soil, NOVARKA began installation work.

Will it come to the "Freedom" zone?

The organization of my business trip to the exclusion zone was carried out by the information center of the state enterprise "Chernobyl Specialized Plant".

When it became clear that the French, the leaders of the consortium, did not want to communicate with the journalist, I tried to enter from the rear. I turned to David Stulik, press officer of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, for assistance. David sent emails to Brussels, motivating the need for an interview with the urgency of the topic, I quietly cherished, because I had never met such participation among local officials. Finally, David was explained that the agreement between the EBRD and NOVARKA provides for limiting communication with the press. However, the bank, represented by Mr. Balthazar Lindauer, was ready to contact the general contractor and give the go-ahead for a conversation with a Novaya Gazeta correspondent, provided that the questions only touched on the technical aspects of the project. I didn't bother London. At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there are already an abundance of color advertising booklets about the arch and its uniqueness ...

Yes, and Viktor Nikolayevich Zalizetsky, deputy head of the construction project, walked me around the site, giving me the opportunity to marvel at the strictest access and control regime, tall openwork metal vaults (pipes are delivered from Italy, by sea), powerful foundations (cement is brought from France), Dutch jacks, American cranes, Turkish sheathing and small people. Recovery is expected in the spring, apparently with the next tranche. An international group from 20 countries is assembled here: engineers, technicians. There are even Filipino builders, so you have to keep a large staff of translators.

“But the Ukrainian staff prevails,” Viktor Nikolayevich specified. - Contractors have a competition for a place, like in a theater institute!

Photographed near the wire fence. Behind him is a "dirty" part of the territory with a "sarcophagus" in the middle. Zalizetsky called a safety engineer with a dosimeter: during the shift he accumulated only 3 microsieverts, with an allowable hundred. This is probably why representatives of the donor countries also once took a group photo here as a keepsake: without hats, others with short sleeves. But ordinary foreign taxpaying tourists on excursions in the zone (the Chernobyl Special Plant also provides such services), it happens that they put on gas masks at the Dityatki checkpoint and walk in them. It all depends on the background that sets off the event ...

On the eve of the New Year, several hundred Ukrainian shift workers were given a settlement: the contract had ended. They tried to arrange a picket, a rally, but without scope. Everyone secretly hoped to get a job again, although the position of Western management is known: the number of "natives" interferes with the intensity of labor. In addition, there are fears that they will join the ranks of the "Chernobyl victims" and demand the treatment, benefits, and pensions prescribed by law.

- For the French - a separate dining room. Chops are fed, and we are fed with slops, like cattle! the builder Vladimir Grygoriv told me indignantly. - After the shift, the French are taken to “clean” Slavutych, and we are in Chernobyl, in hostels. On our land, the owners are strangers, and we are slaves?!

Unable to get the truth, Grygoriv went with friends to the deputies from Svoboda, whose negative position in terms of Ukraine's rapprochement with the European Union is known. “Be patient a little! the nationalists encouraged. “Let’s put things in order at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant!”

According to Dmitry Gennadyevich Bobro, First Deputy Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine for the management of the exclusion zone, interest in the territory from Western scientists has faded.

— What concerns the migration of radionuclides and the immediate state of the territory has been studied. New, interesting is connected with the impact of the radiation factor on the biota - how quickly the earth and living organisms adapt. Fukushima is not our competitor. They, fortunately, did not get contaminated with transuranium elements, primarily plutonium.

But investors do not invest in such research. As well as in the projects of economic revival, which were invented by EU experts: for example, to plant a zone with rapeseed. Experts, unlike Dmitry Bobro, do not know that over the years after the accident, not only fields, but also depopulated, resettled villages were overgrown with forest. 80 percent of the pine and deciduous wilderness, periodically blazing with fires ... Despite this, the zone and the station have recently been transferred from the subordination of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to the jurisdiction of a poor Ministry of Ecology. Therefore, a process stretched out in time - the construction of a new safe confinement - must be blessed. It perfectly supports the life support systems of a number of Ukrainian departments. By the way, by coincidence, 2015 is the year of presidential elections. After that, the EBRD may again have claims to the "disgusting management" on the part of Kyiv. The deadlines will be shifted, donors will donate money ... And then they will announce an international tender to develop a method for extracting the contents of the "sarcophagus".

Enough for their lifetime.

Chernobyl exclusion zone - Kyiv