A shield for the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine is being slowly moved into place to prevent the site from continuing to leak radioactive materials. The 354-foot-high concrete and steel arch containment weighing 36,000 tons is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built.
The hulking shield will be moved and fitted over the Chernobyl facilities within five days, reported BBC News. It began moving toward the old reactor on Monday with the help of series of hydraulic jacks.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development managed funding for the $1.62 billion project.
"The start of the sliding of the arch over Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the beginning of the end of a 30-year long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident," said Ukraine's Environment Minister Ostap Semerak, per Agence France-Presse.
The old reactor is covered by a concrete dome that was quickly built by Soviet rescue workers and is in danger of leaking nuclear waste, reported AFP.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in 1986 when the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It killed 30 people, while thousands of others suffered from radiation poisoning over a large area, noted AFP.
The Chernobyl meltdown and explosion is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history. Radioactive material was spread to Belarus and northern Europe as well the Soviet Union, said BBC News.
A United Nations-backed Chernobyl Forum in 2005 estimated that 9,000 people could eventually die from Chernobyl's radiation exposure but the environmental group Greenpeace said the figure could be as many 93,000, said BBC News.
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