Despite delays, massive containment arch over existing Chornobyl shelter could be in commission by the end of 2010, as years-long tender to find a contractor to build arch appears to be nearing to a close
Despite delays, a massive containment arch over the existing Chornobyl shelter could be in commission by the end of 2010, as the
years-long tender to find a contractor to build the arch appears to be nearing to a close.
It’s likely that by mid-June the world will know the winner of the hugely lucrative tender, which could be worth more than $1 billion, according to Axel Reiserer, a spokesman for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s London office. The company that wins the tender will be responsible for assembling and mounting a giant 100-meter-high, 150-meter-long and 250-meter-wide arch to cover the plant’s notorious Reactor No. 4, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident on April 26, 1986.
The Post reported in June 2004 that the EBRD had planned to announce the winner of the tender by the end of that year. At the time, Vince Novak, the director of the EBRD’s nuclear safety unit, had cited technical delays in the tender process.
Now, nearly two years later, Novarca, a European joint venture under the management of France’s Vinchi Group, and a United States-Ukrainian consortium under the management of U.S.-based CH2M Hill, have been singled out as the tender’s finalists.
“It is a very complicated issue, and the first attempt to build such a massive structure on the site of a nuclear accident,” said Reiserer. For Reiserer, technical delays in such a project are unavoidable.
Mike Rengel, managing director at CH2M Hill’s London office, told the Post on May 3 that the delays in the tender process were not caused so much by the project’s technical difficulty as by the amount of time it takes to get the necessary regulatory approvals, which in Ukraine takes much longer than elsewhere.
Similarly, Rengel said that should his company’s bid of more than $584 million win the competition, he suspects it will face more delays as a result of having to receive numerous approvals from officials once construction of the containment arch gets underway.
CH2M Hill already has experience in Ukraine working on EBRD-financed projects to modernize water supply systems in Lviv and Zaporizhya.
For the Chornobyl project, CH2M formed a partnership with Kyiv-based construction company InterBudMontazh.
Valeriy Kulishenko, the main engineer of the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP) Project Management Unit at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station, explained that the massive 20,000-ton steel structure will be assembled on the Chornobyl site about 200 meters away from the destroyed reactor and then slid over to cover it completely. Kulishenko said that this approach to constructing the containment arch will be used to minimize the radiation impact on nearly 1,000 construction workers who will be working at the site, since no one can work in the most contaminated areas of the reactor for longer than 20 minutes. The reactor was initially covered with a makeshift roof following the 1986 explosion, but the structure is unsafe and subject to leaks.
Reiserer said that of the project’s total costs, which the EBRD estimates at $1.2 billion, nearly $900 million has already been accumulated. The U.S. was the largest single donor with a contribution of $130 million. Ukraine, in its turn, has contributed $72 million.
For its part, the Ukrainian side is seriously concerned about the delays in the tender, as well as the way in which the SIP is being implemented.
According to information provided by the Emergency Ministry, more than 330 million euros ($400 million) of the project’s total funds have already been spent ahead of the tender’s closure. This amount, according to the ministry, includes nearly 90 million euros ($108 million) in consulting fees.
The ministry’s press service had said that the winner of the tender would be announced no later than this March, but the EBRD has once again postponed the decision.
The Chornobyl station’s Kulishenko told the Post on May 3 that, formally, the decision regarding which bidder gets the contract was made back in March, but the losing company has appealed the decision with the EBRD.
Kulishenko expects the issue to be resolved by the end of May, which would allow the Chornobyl station to sign the contract.
The EBRD’s Reiserer would neither confirm nor deny this information. CH2M’s Rengel also declined to comment on the issue.
Vinchi said it was unable to respond to the Post’s request for comment.
The Chornobyl nuclear power plant, located just 130 kilometers north of Kyiv, was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when its Reactor No. 4 exploded, spewing radioactive fallout across parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and northern Europe.The world commemorated the disaster on April 26, which this year marked the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.
