Chernobyl’s new safe confinement
2015 - 2016
In November 2016 – 30 years after the nuclear disaster that destroyed Chernobyl’s Reactor 4 – the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure was successfully slid into its final position. The huge arch, weighing 36,000t when fully equipped, has been designed to enable the safe dismantling of Reactor 4, previously enclosed by a makeshift shelter built in 1986. VSL carried out the lifting of the main crane system inside the new shelter – an operation that couldn’t be executed using conventional cranes due to the size and height of the system itself.