Ukrainian authorities have approved a giant steel cover for Chernobyl, the radio-active site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Authorities have hired a French firm, Novarka, to build the structure to replace the crumbling concrete casing put over the reactor after the 1986 accident. According to a BBC report, the casing project is expected to cost $1.4bn, and take about five years to complete.
Only after this will the authorities start dismantling the reactor, the report said.
Under the plan, Novarka will build a giant arch-shaped structure out of steel, 190 m (623 feet) wide and 200m long, which will cover the existing containment structure, which stands over the reactor and radioactive fuel that caused the accident in 1986.
The reactor still contains 95 percent of its original nuclear material, and exposure to weather and poor construction has left the existing casing weak. According to the report, Ukraine has also signed a separate deal with the US firm Holtec to build a storage facility within the exclusion zone for nuclear waste which has been produced by Chernobyl.
The money for the schemes has come from international donors, which is administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
