The first lot consisting of 149 tons of metal structures for central segment of the Arch of the first lift has been delivered to customs warehouses of Chernobyl NPP site. The structures are produced at Italian plant “Chimalay” and delivered to Ukraine by railway.

As Mr. Vladimir Kashtanov, Chief Engineer of Shelter Implementation Plan Project, informed, the second lot, 1,030 tons, was loaded on ship board on March 14 in Italy and will be delivered to Ukraine by sea. This lot is expected to receive on March 20-25 at Odessa seaport. After unloading, it will be delivered to Chernobyl site by motor transport.

Physical works on assembling Arch structures will commence in April 2012. The assembling will be carried out at mounting platform built specially for this purpose within local zone of Shelter Object.

In total, more than 20,000 tons of metal structures will be imported to Ukraine for arched structure of New Safe Confinement.

Let us recall that New Safe Confinement is multi-functional complex for Shelter transformation into ecologically safe system. It consists of:
- main building consisting of arch structure, aperture of which north-southwards is 257.44 m, height is 108.39 m, length is 150 m, foundations, western and eastern end walls, required supporting and auxiliary systems;

- technological building including sites for decontamination, fragmentation and packaging, sanitary locks, workshops and other process premises;

- auxiliary buildings.

To assure nuclear, radiation and common industrial safety of NSC and its efficient operation involving minimum number of operational personnel, it is envisaged to create Integrated Control System of NSC. Also, fire safety and physical protection systems will be created, and communication and television networks will be arranged. Crane equipment will be assembled to provide dismantling of unstable structures.

NSC construction enables to:

• improve radiation safety; integrity of NSC cover constrains radiation impact on population, personnel and environment for 100 years of its operation;

• decrease potential of emergency collapse due to dismantling of unstable structures;

• decrease consequences from emergency collapse due to enclosing and supporting structures and control systems inside NSC;

• improve nuclear safety of the Shelter due to excluding ingress of atmospheric moisture onto FCM accumulations that significantly decreases risk of initiating self-sustaining chain reaction;

• provide implementation of Shelter transformation into ecologically safe system strategy due to service life of NSC structures, ability to dismantle unstable structures of existing Shelter and retrieval of fuel-containing materials.

New Safe Confinement as multi-functional facility having 100 years of service life will enable in the future to retrieve fuel-containing materials and condition them for subsequent safe storage.